Post Az0fZPT1Nn6d2rNk0m by cjd@pkteerium.xyz
(DIR) More posts by cjd@pkteerium.xyz
(DIR) Post #Az0ebDHHZcE7rjBfaC by stux@mstdn.social
2025-10-08T19:55:46Z
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Personally I am sure there must be other life besides Earth in the Universe, the amount of stuff out there is not even imaginableBut I also think the chance we ever get so detect something is very low since the Universe is so big we think it's without limitIt would be amazing if in the far future we could travel to other stars within a lifetime but I fear we are stuck to our solar systemAt least there is space enough for everyone
(DIR) Post #Az0envGTr9njlQs9jc by lydiaconwell@todon.nl
2025-10-08T19:58:00Z
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@stux That's why warp speed was invented.
(DIR) Post #Az0eqP1ECd6Yciv9LE by stux@mstdn.social
2025-10-08T19:58:30Z
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@lydiaconwell :blobcatgiggle: I'm pretty sure we won't get to beat some laws 😇
(DIR) Post #Az0f0vnfB5FtBkb2MC by cjd@pkteerium.xyz
2025-10-08T20:00:24.259643Z
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Normally the universe should be teaming with other species, but we don't detect them. This is called the Fermi Paradox.> travel to other stars within a lifetimeActually quite realistic using reactionless thrusters, but engineering is needed to scale them, and it's hard going because we don't even really understand how they work.
(DIR) Post #Az0fNe05WRnqe1EqCe by stux@mstdn.social
2025-10-08T20:04:30Z
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@cjd Oh I am aware :blobcatgiggle: But even if we manage to reach incredible speeds..There is a relative speed (not sure the right word) between our star and lets say Bernards Star or Proxima Centauri, we can accelerate to half way and need to decelerate the second half since we otherwise would fly past itThats at least years upon years
(DIR) Post #Az0fS0EcnTrOlI7GLY by cjd@pkteerium.xyz
2025-10-08T20:05:09.897308Z
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If you can build a thruster at the scale that will produce 1 G of force, it only takes a matter of months of running it to get up to 1% the speed of light. So getting out of the solar system because *very* realistic.The reason why space flight currently is trash is because thrusters all need to carry something which they then throw out the back. Being required to carry all of this weight makes everything super-massive and you can't make very much thrust at all.Reactionless thrusters turn the entire equation on it's head. Put in X amount of power, keep putting it in, eventually you're going incredibly fast. But current reactionless thrusters are like tinfoil that can fly... not much thrust at all.
(DIR) Post #Az0fZPT1Nn6d2rNk0m by cjd@pkteerium.xyz
2025-10-08T20:06:32.735497Z
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Surprisingly no, somebody did the math and getting to another solar system is like 4 years. Constant acceleration and then deceleration (as you say) is in fact *incredibly* effective at getting places...
(DIR) Post #Az0fZmDCol7ZaT9w3M by mrcopilot@mstdn.social
2025-10-08T20:06:41Z
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@stux Kinda hoping we come to value life here before we start snuffing it out indiscriminately everywhere else.
(DIR) Post #Az0fvJQ8XnhMfATc3M by Linux@rebel.ar
2025-10-08T20:09:32Z
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@stux Take a good look at the planet you’re on — a really good look at everything about it and why things are happening the way they are.Would you want to make contact with this planet?Life is out there, but humanity isn’t invited to know about it until it gets its act together.
(DIR) Post #Az0fvKlRY4KspXS8u1 by stux@mstdn.social
2025-10-08T20:10:33Z
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@Linux There is so much more to Earth 😉
(DIR) Post #Az0fypNWBN8SeAvbEm by guizzy@shitposter.world
2025-10-08T20:11:19.961056Z
2 likes, 1 repeats
@cjd @stux How could it be, if the closest star to ours is Alpha Centauri 4.37 LY away? At a constant speed of c, not accounting for acceleration and deceleration, it would take 4.37 years to reach. Seems trivially impossible, I don't know what calculation could falsify it, except assuming speeds higher than c.
(DIR) Post #Az0g2zHPJLXwVw3MX2 by cjd@pkteerium.xyz
2025-10-08T20:11:56.353426Z
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I would really like to build some of these, apparently very simple to do - but we're just lacking the physics to explain why they work, and the engineering to make them put our real thrust...http://jnaudin.free.fr/lifters/act/html/actv3tst.htm
(DIR) Post #Az0gCRHgYnxZyUgrK4 by stux@mstdn.social
2025-10-08T20:13:38Z
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@cjd Oh yes! This is very interesting We really should be investing more in space, space travel and colonizing Luna, Mars etcInvest may be much but the returns are Invaluable
(DIR) Post #Az0gE2gF0ZQUFJwMqG by Christopher@mastodon.coffee
2025-10-08T20:13:56Z
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@stux The universe is like Australia, in that every native species will try and kill us once we arrive.
(DIR) Post #Az0gMj6PAU1c8GJrJg by stux@mstdn.social
2025-10-08T20:15:33Z
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@Christopher Well.. Positive thing could that it could make us realize we're all the same with a common enemy instead of each other
(DIR) Post #Az0gT6vRVUYJkwEhCy by estelle@mstdn.social
2025-10-08T20:16:41Z
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@stux solar sails are interesting because they let you do this with technology we're basically capable of now with focused engineering effortthe general idea is that you want to get the thing into a high enough orbit that gas molecules won't slow it down (for a sail this is way, way higher than LEO), let it descend out of earth's orbit somehow...then tilt the sail such that deflected photons push it retrograde, ever closer to sunapparently, this _is_ doable for small payloads in a lifespan
(DIR) Post #Az0h2GWfnw3bfPPhGC by arisummerland@beige.party
2025-10-08T20:22:58Z
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@stux Have you read:https://www.mit.edu/people/dpolicar/writing/prose/text/thinkingMeat.html
(DIR) Post #Az0hBrKAMIaiOv8bs8 by cjd@pkteerium.xyz
2025-10-08T20:24:47.569787Z
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I spent a few minutes trying to find it but I couldn't. I think it was Andrew Aurigema or Charles Buhler from Exodus who said this but I don't have it here. It might have been like weeks to Mars and decades to Proxima Centauri but I don't remember the numbers in fact. I'm pretty sure they quoted 4 years to *something* but not sure what.Nobody was talking about faster than light travel, so it can't have been 4 years to Proxima Centauri in fact.
(DIR) Post #Az0hX4IBL5M0hZK5qa by cjd@pkteerium.xyz
2025-10-08T20:28:37.770600Z
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There was a book on this called Theft of Fire by Devon Eriksen. Not sure I can recommend it because reading it frustrated the hell out of me, in multiple different ways throughout the book, but it was an interesting narrative in any case.Asteroid mining and space piracy, and extreme anarcho-capitalism because forming a government at solar system scale is not gonna happen.
(DIR) Post #Az0hYWPOHyb4BzO7Zw by guizzy@shitposter.world
2025-10-08T20:28:59.263367Z
1 likes, 1 repeats
@cjd @stux to correct myself, the closest "solar system", not star
(DIR) Post #Az0i6dJ98zIXR5jUyu by guizzy@shitposter.world
2025-10-08T20:35:09.620573Z
2 likes, 1 repeats
@cjd @stux Decades is probably possible, though it might be a disappointment if the result is that there is nothing habitable or useful there. But as far as I know there's no hard scientific barrier to generational ships enabling us to go there and further, mostly (very difficult) engineering, ecological and social problems to solve.
(DIR) Post #Az0iNG60hMOOMuW492 by cjd@pkteerium.xyz
2025-10-08T20:38:01.233259Z
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Right now we need to figure out why capacitive thrusters become more and more powerful as you close the capacitor gap, then when it gets too close they stop working entirely. Thrust is inverse of distance squared, 13 micron thrusters have been built, but something prevents us from going much below that. Film deposition should allow nanometer scale easily.
(DIR) Post #Az0ixwRwhn6s9SGh2u by Christopher@mastodon.coffee
2025-10-08T20:44:40Z
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@stux Its a stretch, but I guess they too could also hate Elon. :blobfoxsmirk:
(DIR) Post #Az0u9XMqsvfJKbcKv2 by mangeurdenuage@shitposter.world
2025-10-08T22:50:08.608074Z
1 likes, 1 repeats
@stux >It would be amazing if in the far future we could travel to other stars within a lifetime but I fear we are stuck to our solar systemIt's already possible since at least since the 70s but since Israel is turbo paranoiac they just destroyed it.See "Project Babylon" to send non humans/cargo/part into orbithttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_BabylonSee "orion project" for solar and interstellar travel.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_(nuclear_propulsion)
(DIR) Post #Az0uSBvCqQ1KJua5xY by mangeurdenuage@shitposter.world
2025-10-08T22:53:30.873784Z
3 likes, 1 repeats
@cjd @stux >but we don't detect themNothing within our current understanding and tools.Nothing say that the already space traveling capable species are excluding us for reasons.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1561_celestial_phenomenon_over_Nuremberg>Actually quite realistic using reactionless thrusters,See "Project Babylon" to send non humans/cargo/part into orbithttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_BabylonSee "orion project" for solar and interstellar travel.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_(nuclear_propulsion)
(DIR) Post #Az0uim2WKIgsyHuS5A by mangeurdenuage@shitposter.world
2025-10-08T22:56:30.062547Z
1 likes, 1 repeats
@guizzy @cjd @stux Indeed. Aside scientific discovery there's also a need of somewhat financial benefits.If space travel becomes a thing then the first thing that will and has come up to mind is "can we extract resources from planets/asteroids ?".
(DIR) Post #Az18QLV7elwcoDOY0e by nazokiyoubinbou@urusai.social
2025-10-09T01:29:54Z
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@stux Well, the actual mass of the universe is finite. The question is whether the actual distance could ultimately be infinite. As there seems to be a sort of "spacetime fabric," it is possible maybe even that isn't infinite.But yeah, finding other life is... difficult. The nearest star systems are multiple years of travel at light speed — which is impossible for matter to travel at. (There may be cheats such as warp travel which could let one move as if they were going faster without actually, but it would require exotic energy to achieve probably...) And if, as I suspect, conditions for intelligent life to form are more complex than people are assuming (our solar system has two cosmic filters) they could be so far away our signals haven't even reached, much less any replies...
(DIR) Post #Az1FK5daQIR1YDJm6K by bonno@mastodon.social
2025-10-09T02:47:11Z
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@stux if you travel fast enough - close to speed of light - your time passes more slowly - so in that lifetime of 70 years with time passing more slowly you can travel much more than 70 light-years - you won't be able to travel back and tell about it to your brother who staid on earth as Earth's time will have progressed much farther than your time and everyone you knew on earth will have died some time ago
(DIR) Post #Az1bQyjOhGcn9Mj3vE by DLC@mstdn.social
2025-10-09T06:55:00Z
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@stux for life like us the biggest problem seems to be the availability of phosphorus which is strangely abundant here but scarce nearly everywhere else in the universe
(DIR) Post #Az1faBH5pUPcTZ88Iq by kissyagni@techhub.social
2025-10-09T07:41:26Z
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@stux I am tempted to think that if life were so common, it would not have needed such a large universe to appear. Kind of Anthropic principle + Occam's razor. We can observe this univers because it is is capable of developing observers. If smaller - simpler - univers were capable of of developping observers, we probably have appeared in this kind of univers instead of our current one.