Originally posted by twhiteheadBut wouldn't even just a single piece of space junk traveling at near light speed have an awesome amount of energy?
There isn't enough random space junk to make it worthwhile. It might however be worth harvesting known space junk such as rocks off Saturns rings or small asteroids or comets as you could gather a large amount of mass without having to lift it out of earths gravity.
I'm not too big on physics but I plan to remedy that by returning to school, It's such a fascinating subject.
Originally posted by MISTER CHESSYes, but it takes an awesome amount of energy to get it to that speed.
But wouldn't even just a single piece of space junk traveling at near light speed have an awesome amount of energy?
One downside of using space junk is that it is not necessarily going in the same direction as you are, so first you have to change its velocity to the same as yours before using it as propellant.
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Originally posted by twhiteheadI figured the point is to collide with the space junk, this is where the energy would come from right?
Yes, but it takes an awesome amount of energy to get it to that speed.
One downside of using space junk is that it is not necessarily going in the same direction as you are, so first you have to change its velocity to the same as yours before using it as propellant.
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Originally posted by MISTER CHESSNo, that would tend to destroy your craft. The energy of a grain of sand if you collide with it at half the speed of light would be something like a small nuke. So there are designs afoot for magnetic fields and lasers, lasers to detect stuff in the way with a low power Lidar pulse, then when detected, a high power pulse ionizes the particle and the powerful magnetic field redirects the ion around the craft.
I figured the point is to collide with the space junk, this is where the energy would come from right?
I think you were talking about interstellar velocities right? As close to c as you can manage, which is unlikely to get above 0.5c for any propulsion system we can think of right now, up to and including anti-matter rockets.
That pretty much sucks because the dilation effect is only about 15% which means ship time is only about 15% ahead of Earth time. You would want it to be 10X ahead of Earth so the crew can get to a decent place in a lifetime, so you could go 200 ly in 20 years crew time, 20 years back but 400 years would still pass on Earth, you would arrive in a different era, maybe spaceflight would have been lost🙂 Or you go out 500 ly and go into deep sleep hibernation and it takes 50 years, 100 years ship time there and back, now 1000 years have passed on Earth. Totally different era. Different forms of governments, not even certain the same countries would be there, could be but maybe not, wars and so forth could carve up the Earth in entirely new ways, like North and South America all one country, Asia owns all of Europe, that kind of thing, it would pretty much suck for the travelers who would have to learn new languages and culture, arts, and so forth. For sure there would be no USA or UK or Ireland, etc.
Originally posted by sonhouseThe idea is to absorb the energy from the collision. I don't know if that is possible but it seems with a warp drive extreme amounts of negative energy are needed so I would think some form of conversion would be necessary. Remember though, when it comes to physics I'm very naive so I don't know how plausible this would be.
No, that would tend to destroy your craft. The energy of a grain of sand if you collide with it at half the speed of light would be something like a small nuke. So there are designs afoot for magnetic fields and lasers, lasers to detect stuff in the way with a low power Lidar pulse, then when detected, a high power pulse ionizes the particle and the powerfu ...[text shortened]... languages and culture, arts, and so forth. For sure there would be no USA or UK or Ireland, etc.
Originally posted by MISTER CHESSWell, NASA is serious about studying the possibility.
The idea is to absorb the energy from the collision. I don't know if that is possible but it seems with a warp drive extreme amounts of negative energy are needed so I would think some form of conversion would be necessary. Remember though, when it comes to physics I'm very naive so I don't know how plausible this would be.
Originally posted by MISTER CHESSTrying to collect energy from space junk collisions is like trying to harness lightning. Where in the world did you ever think they could do that? You get a dust mote coming in at a relative velocity of 10,000 Km/second and it just tries to blast a hole, you can't harness that, you try to SURVIVE it. Like the ISS has this meteor shielding comprising of 5 or 6 layers of thin sheet metal all separated by spacers so it is maybe an inch thick and a meteor has to blast its way through all those layers which stops 99.999 percent of all the crap flying around in space. But actually utilizing that energy? I wouldn't say impossible but it is literally like trying to capture the energy of lightning. Both forms of energy just comes in too strong too fast. You get megajoules flying into your spacecraft you try mainly for survival not capture.
About converting space junk collisions into the necessary energy for a warp drive? Or just about warp drives in general?
If a chunk of rock one cm across came flying into the spacecraft it would go right through ALL the shielding and just keep going and if a person was in the way, he would be like being hit with a battleground 50 caliber rifle shell, in and out and then out the back wall and now you have not only a dead person but explosive decompression to deal with also.
Put that capturing energy out of your mind, that is not going to happen, not now and not in 200 years from now.