Guest Blooz1 Posted April 20, 2008 Posted April 20, 2008 It's just amazing that this technology is finally becoming a reality! Ion Engine This is the kind of stuff that might eventually take mankind into true "space exploration", along with alternatives such as "solar sails". Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GH0S1_R33P0R Posted April 21, 2008 Posted April 21, 2008 niiiice Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angry_Games Posted April 21, 2008 Posted April 21, 2008 heh except it would take a billion years to get to the nearest star system (ok about a million since no matter how fast an ion engine can accelerate, it still has to do a 180 halfway through the journey and decelerate at the same rate...) space exploration will never become anything more than a money pit for NASA to waste our money with until we come up with some real alternative technologies like...tachyon propulsion, wormhole transversal, etc (even with wormholes, we'd need a revolutionary propulsion system that could get us to a wormhole or create a wormhole which would mean a propulsion system that could get a ship about a light year out of our solar system should a wormhole collapse in a bad way and destroy everything within a radius) space is a fantasy that I love to read about in sci-fi, but unless we get one of these revolutionary technologies, it will never be anything but a fantasy (sorta like the moon landings...wow....1969 we supposedly went to the moon and now we can't even make it back???? come on!!!) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
momoceio Posted April 21, 2008 Posted April 21, 2008 Ion engines have been around and used for quite some time...they accelerate much too slowly to do space travel. If you have a few years then they're fine but when you need to get somewhere in a hurry then you need something else. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dr_bowtie Posted April 21, 2008 Posted April 21, 2008 you mean we dont have Warp drive thrusters like on Star Trek and stuff... I mean if it's on TV it's gotta be real right? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
suedenim Posted April 21, 2008 Posted April 21, 2008 Still waiting for scientists to figure out Gravity and a unified force theory then maybe 50 yrs after that we'll inadvertently drop a blackhole into the centre of the earth and have to move to Mars (which will really show up my pasty complexion) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angry_Games Posted April 22, 2008 Posted April 22, 2008 Ion engines have been around and used for quite some time...they accelerate much too slowly to do space travel. If you have a few years then they're fine but when you need to get somewhere in a hurry then you need something else. ion engines are actually very good for our primitive space travel. Unmanned explorer vehicles make good use of this. Ion engines, while accelerating much too slowly, have the benefit of continual acceleration over time (ie once the ion engine actually starts to propel the vehicle, it will continue to accelerate as long as the ion engine is thrusting, though it will never get anywhere even remotely close to a speed that would be suitable for humans to ever travel ANYWHERE lol). good for unmanned probes (anal probes?) but bad for human probes (drat...no anal probes :mad:) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
momoceio Posted April 22, 2008 Posted April 22, 2008 Yeah, I should have specified manned space travel. They are pretty cool though...first time I saw one was the Deep Space1 mission. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
charlie22911 Posted April 22, 2008 Posted April 22, 2008 this is actually one of the things that intrest me... i love sci-fi (the halo books were great BTW). but if you want to know how things related to this work and could become realit, google Michio Kaku. hes a brain... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angry_Games Posted April 22, 2008 Posted April 22, 2008 he's the gray haired asian astrophysicist dude that is always on the Science Channel shows (like The Universe etc). he's kinda dorky though...like any typical World of Warcraft player lol Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
charlie22911 Posted April 22, 2008 Posted April 22, 2008 lol, yeah he has a way of breaking things down so us non-physicists folks can understand what he is saying though, it sets himself apart from the rest of the physicist crowd Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
momoceio Posted April 22, 2008 Posted April 22, 2008 Yep, I really enjoy listening to him. He'd be a great college professor. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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