MagnaCool--Habitable Exoplanet!

[Seeker]

Well the way I've always heard it described is we are using a magnetic funnel to attract interstellar helium and hydrogen to run our fusion engine.

This engine could also be used to deflect larger (but still tiny) particles from impacting by generating a second powerful magnetic field.

The fusion engine pushes out ionized hydrogen, sucks in same, just like a jet engine except magnetic rather than using metallic parts.

I really don't see what is stopping it from reaching relativistic speeds.

-Really big fuel source=check, there may be a greater density of interstellar medium than astronomers had previously believed

-Inertia=also check we are accelerating and decellerating slowly

-Impacts=accounted for. We actually WANT to encounter ions. I'm going to say that particles above the microscopic are probably so rare in the interstellar medium that planning for them is like planning for the eventually of tigers forming by quantum tunneling and attacking.

-Engine heat and efficiency= check using a magnetic engine 'piggy-backed' to a conventional fission reactor as a 'kickstarter' without moving parts could I imagine reach a very high efficiency

So why not 50% c ?

[Ned]

Seeker, are all space dust particles affected by magnetic fields?

[Ned]

I am thinking about Dr. Strangelove, the movie. Didn't the good doctor call for a male to female ratio of 1/10 to encourage rapid populaton growth?

Sounds like a plan.

Any volunteers?

[Last Conformist]

Many, perhaps most, dust particles will have gotten a net charge from interactions with around-zipping ions and radiation, but they'll come with the entire spectrum of charge/mass ratios. And even a 1µm particle has a lot of kinetic energy at 0.5c.

[Ned]

LC, my point, exactly.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by DRoseDARs
Dauphin, you're not far off the mark. Scientists are actually working on a tech that works somewhat like that. I'll see if I can remember where I say the article; it was this month, possibly in the past week even.

sigh

[self biased]

cool we'll have Dwarves. or Squats. i just hope that the tyranids don't come by and eat them. again.

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by Ned
KH, is there anyway to "probe" the planet with a signal from earth?

No.

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by Dauphin


With a decent array of interferometric satellites you could check out the chemical composition of the atmosphere. Look for chemical byproducts of life for example.

He means send out a signal and get it back.

The entire power output of the earth is not enough to be detectable when reflected off a planet-sized object 20 ly away.

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by Seeker
Well the way I've always heard it described is we are using a magnetic funnel to attract interstellar helium and hydrogen to run our fusion engine.

This engine could also be used to deflect larger (but still tiny) particles from impacting by generating a second powerful magnetic field.

The fusion engine pushes out ionized hydrogen, sucks in same, just like a jet engine except magnetic rather than using metallic parts.

I really don't see what is stopping it from reaching relativistic speeds.

-Really big fuel source=check, there may be a greater density of interstellar medium than astronomers had previously believed

-Inertia=also check we are accelerating and decellerating slowly

-Impacts=accounted for. We actually WANT to encounter ions. I'm going to say that particles above the microscopic are probably so rare in the interstellar medium that planning for them is like planning for the eventually of tigers forming by quantum tunneling and attacking.

-Engine heat and efficiency= check using a magnetic engine 'piggy-backed' to a conventional fission reactor as a 'kickstarter' without moving parts could I imagine reach a very high efficiency

So why not 50% c ?

What you are describing is a Bussard ramjet

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bussard_ramjet

Not a Project Orion spacecraft

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_%28nuclear_propulsion%29

Project Orion = drop hydrogen bombs out the back and let the blasts push you.

[Arrian]

Project Orion = drop hydrogen bombs out the back and let the blasts push you.

[Kuciwalker]

It's quite safe

[Guynemer]

Originally posted by Seeker
Let's say a human lifespan of 160 years within the next century, why not?

Ummm... no.

[Provost Harrison]

Originally posted by Guynemer


Ummm... no.

Hey, this isn't a comment for the doctors, this is one for the molecular biologists amongst us, in my opinion:

Ummm...no

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
It's quite safe

Okay. You can have my ticket then.