Quote:

SlimJim wrote: In order to move forward, you have to throw stuff out in the opposite direction you want to move. Assuming you could get a very effective rocket capable of an exhaust velocity of, say, 10000 m/s (the most effective traditional chemical fuels available today is Liquid hydrogen + Oxygen, capapble of an exhaust velocity of about 7500m/s). Then you would then have to eject 1 kilo of exhaust per second in order to keep up the 1G acceleration (neglecting the fact that the mass of your rocket decreases every second, as fuel is used up). Since, even at this great acceleration, the trip to Proxima Centauri takes some 4 years (including deacceleration but blatantly, and erroneously, assuming the light barrier pose no hinder (!) and that no relativistic stuff comes into play), and if fuel weights like water, it becomes quite difficult to build a 1000-kilo probe capable of such a prolonged acceleration...

I was thinking of energy from matter/antimatter annihilation. (Of course we have to find a way to produce and store antimatter, but in teori it's possible.) If we take 1mg of matter and 1mg of antimatter, by combining those we get the energy:
E=0.000002 * c^2 (c~300.000.000m/s)
E~1.8 * 10^11 Joule (which seems alot!?)

Let's think of an engine, where the matter/antimatter annihilation is in a vacuum surrounded by a huge magnetic field. Let's then say, we could tansfer all the energy to some stuff, what will be exhaust out with very high speed, pushing the ship forward. How much matter/antimatter is needed?

Energy is messured in Joule (kg * meter^2 / sec^2)
Force in Newton (kg * meter / sec^2)
So Energy = Newton * meter
I seem to miss some equations. Also I probably need some equations from Einsteins Relativity Theories. A place to start:
http://www.westegg.com/einstein/

Quote:

That's why, with current technology, it's going to take centuries to travel to the next star.

I'm trying to figure it out with current knowledge of physics, not current technology. We of course have to find ways to produce antimatter in bigger quantities than they do in Cern now, and find ways to store it (vacuums surrounded by magnetic fields).

Geomol

The amount of energy you produce is of less
importance to the acceleration gained than the
momentum induced into the system every second.
Even if you could expell your exhaust mass at light
speed (3x10^8 ms^-2) (and once again neglecting
relativity and light barrier), you would need
something like of >4 tons of fuel for the trip - which
has to be carried, the increased mass causing more
fuel to be needed etc. It would be very nice if this
were possible of course. But it still says something
about the problems involved. Generally, the higher
the ratio fuel/rocket is, the more effective the
propulsion.

A very effective way to gain energy (such as
antimatter annihilations) would probably first and
foremost be used for effective, but very slowly
accelerating starships, expelling extremely small
amounts of fuel at very high velocities. The
acceleration is nominal, but given time, the ship will
reach high velocities at a relatively low cost in fuel.
.
SlimJim

@ Peeps


YAY , I found my old thread

_________________
******************************************
I dont suffer from Insanity - I enjoy it

******************************************

Noooooo

Don't let it drift off into oblivion again !!

_________________
******************************************
I dont suffer from Insanity - I enjoy it

******************************************

@The_Editor

Too late


lol

_________________
******************************************
I dont suffer from Insanity - I enjoy it

******************************************