Speed of light, I think.
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Plan to send probe to Alpha Centauri w/ Stephen Hawking
- Thread starter BrokenFiction
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Speed of light, I think.
Marvel presents: Ant-Man in SPACE
waveuponwave
Member
We already sent the ashes of the guy who discovered Pluto with New Horizons, so this is just the logical next step
TheWarrior
Banned
Hawking going for the Civ science victory
redmetal86
Member
I see just about everyone else had the same thought. Oh well, a Spock's casket type of deal would have been interesting.
Gnome Scat
Member
Hawking 9000 maybe.
BrokenFiction
Member
Walter White Walker
Member
Thread title lied to me. Otherwise that's pretty interesting.
Dreams-Visions
Member
Sounds interesting. Using size as a way to tackle the speed problems. It's obviously the way to do it but most of our thinking is spent on getting people places. Micro bots? Now we're talking realistically.
Due to time dilation if you get close enough to the speed of light any journey can seem arbitrarily short no matter how far (though you might run into limits due to there not being enough energy in the universe to get you to that speed)
Alternatively find a way to make negative mass/energy. Then you can create an Alcubierre (sp?) Drive that warps space in a way that allows you to slide yourself through space like a zipper faster than light (note: negative mass may be impossible)
This really made me laugh.
Octavianus
Banned
Title made me think they were going to send Stephen Hawking to Alpha Centauri along with the probe.
I love this thread.
That is how I read it.
And I was like: "Wow dude is making the ultimate sacrifice for science."
hydragonwarrior
Member
Man, I think our biggest accomplishment (for future generations aeons ahead) would be if we can overcome the difficulty of 1 light year. But even then, it's still a whole year, and most things that would be habitable to use are at least 100 or more light years ...
Bear Force One
Banned
You've killed us all.
Ray Wonder
Founder of the Wounded Tagless Children
Man, first thing popped into my head was a comedically large "PLUOM!" accompanied by a picture of Stephen Hawking's face skin jiggling while being fucking blasted into hyper space.
Sounds awesome tho
LookAtMeGo
Member
Cant wait for the advanced civilization there that finds it to trace its point of origin back to earth. It will explain the strange light patterns they have detected from our planet they have been observing. Then its hostile takeover time.
Ravensmash
Member
We could just change the definition to some thing more in reach.
Nothing is impossible to achieve if you have the ability to alter the boundaries!
just his AI
chrisPjelly
Member
Man, I still can't believe we managed to fit Stephen Hawking's conscience into this tiny chip
Ok so 22 yrs to get there, then what? I don't care about it getting there, I care about seeing pics vids and snaps. How long is it gonna take to actually see what's there?
Also, I know space is vast and all that, but with all that distance what are the odds that these things don't run into other things?
Also, I know space is vast and all that, but with all that distance what are the odds that these things don't run into other things?
swordfishtrombones
Member
Just launch it and then we'll start wondering how to receive the signals. Plenty of time!
Really cool idea, but the gigaWatt laser part gave me a "what could possibly go wrong" vibe.
Estimating that the project could cost $5 billion to $10 billion, Mr. Milner is initially investing $100 million for research and development.
Ouch, that's a lot.
Netherscourge
Banned
LOL
Same here.
Stephen apparently has had enough of our fucked up planet and wants OUT.
Theres one Seinfeld joke about the sea...
He says we make a lot of effort to get to the sea.
We plan the vacation, pack our bags, drive for hundreds of miles, stay somewhere...
All of this and when we get to the sea... the sea actually dosent want us there
We enter the sea, the sea pushes us back, go away!
Im telling this story because i always think that the sea dosent want us there, but the space downright hates us
Space is really the one saying "dont come over, we hate you here, we dont even have air. Go away"
Ah yes. Thank you
He says we make a lot of effort to get to the sea.
We plan the vacation, pack our bags, drive for hundreds of miles, stay somewhere...
All of this and when we get to the sea... the sea actually dosent want us there
We enter the sea, the sea pushes us back, go away!
Im telling this story because i always think that the sea dosent want us there, but the space downright hates us
Space is really the one saying "dont come over, we hate you here, we dont even have air. Go away"
Ah yes. Thank you
I imagine we would have some very pissed off aliens giving us a very firm talking too about watching where we are going with the shit we send out.
Rentahamster
Rodent Whores
It would be funny if we develop a faster means of travel a decade later, and beat the probes to AC.
Nostremitus
Member
Would Alpha Centauri's solar winds slow the nanocrafts on approach?
Don't worry. By the time these probes actually got there, the average human life expectancy would likely be pushing 200 or older by then.
Triggerhappytel
Member
The light from Alpha Centurai takes about 4 years to reach us, so this would be just over 20 years.
I recently found out that the North Star, Polaris, is 433 light years away from Earth. So that means when you see the brightest star in the sky, the light you're seeing is from 1583. This is amazing, but it absolutely boggles my mind. If they were going to try and send a probe there with this current technology it would take about 2200 years.
Extremely unlikely, especially when u consider the bulk of the journey would be through interstellar space, which is alot less cluttered than our own solar system.
They could use it to provide motive power for a variety of inner-system craft using similar technology.
Shmuppers
Member
Linkstrikesback
Member
Us to be completely wrong about the laws of physics regarding relativistic speeds and travel, for a start.
So brave of Professor Hawking to spend the last years of his life inside a probe being accelerated to relativistic speeds.
Like the scattershot approach though, send a shitload of them and hope that one makes it without failing in the 20 years it takes for them to get there, then you just need to wait 3+ years to hear back from it!
Like the scattershot approach though, send a shitload of them and hope that one makes it without failing in the 20 years it takes for them to get there, then you just need to wait 3+ years to hear back from it!
Haha, same. I thought, "Well he is kind of old, this would be a good way for him to go..."
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