The slowest spacecraft in the cosmos ...

[szh]

On the other hand, I did not know that ion engines had become a reality! Way cool:

http://www.time.com/time/health/article ... 71,00.html

Z

[snwbrdr435]

They are building bigger one's too. Theoretically it can cut time it takes to get the mars in half.

[szh]

They are building bigger one's too. Theoretically it can cut time it takes to get the mars in half.

Makes sense ...

I just didn't know they had already deployed some at a smaller scale. Cool!

Z

[alms24sebring]

Oh yeah its already been flown. The problem is when you get to really fast speeds over a large distance (like to the next star) it is the slowing down part that may be an issue.

[s0m3th1ngAZ]

I read about ion propulsion like...must have been 10 years ago now.
I have a better idea...one that can be accomplished with current technology (Though politically impossible)
Riding the blast wave of a nuclear explosion to speeds of up to .1 c
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Or ... pulsion%29
f***. Yeah.

[szh]

I read about ion propulsion like...must have been 10 years ago now.
I have a better idea...one that can be accomplished with current technology (Though politically impossible)
Riding the blast wave of a nuclear explosion to speeds of up to .1 c
<a class="vglnk" title="Link added by VigLink" rel="nofollow" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_%28nuclear_propulsion%29">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_%28nuclear_propulsion%29</a>
f***. Yeah.

I think this was originally proposed by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle in their Science-Fiction book "Footfall", but I don't remember for sure now.

The problem is the radiation is a bit stronger than you might want.

Z

[snwbrdr435]

The Airforce was designing one in the 60's, maybe even earlier. Nasa at the time didn't want anything to do with it. Eventually it was scrapped by them but NASA still has everything they came up with. I forget the exact dosage of radiation. I remember someone talking about using it against asteroids. When it was being designed early on they wanted to go to jupiter. I'll pass on going there.

[snwbrdr435]

Clicked on the wiki site, 55 off by a few years but still. Interesting idea i wonder what the g's on that would be

[s0m3th1ngAZ]

It said 1g over 10 days once you are out of LEO...But to launch it from the ground would require some kind of crazy damper system. My favorite bit it how massive the ships can potentially be, we're talking Ark of Humanity sizes.

[snwbrdr435]

The bigger the ship though the less g's you would potentially have to endure.

[alms24sebring]

How about launch a rocket in orbit with it on it and circle the Earth (or Jupiter) a few times to get enough speed. Then let it go right at the perfect time to get it started at about 30,000 mph. You could also do multiple missions at once like study Jupiter/Saturn and its moons and beyond

[snwbrdr435]

I wouldn't want to be in any space ship orbiting jupiter...