Nuclear Powered Spaceshuttle

[deanmine]

Ya Know, back in the '80s Ronald Reagan scared the piss out of Russia with this.... Star War's Program... We Sat And Watched The Reds Build The Most Expensive Radar Defense That Basicly Bankrupt that country...... only to reveal the STEALTH...... so ya .. u may have a point...lol. big time....

[spycosis]

The mathematics behind it are ridiculously complicated, given that the detonation timings have to be continually adjusted to account for the increasing acceleration.
At 1% of the speed of light, the time taken to travel 100 metres would be 0.0000033 seconds (basically just over 3 millionths of a second). That is a small window in which to eject the device from the spacecraft and detonate it. Getting up to 10 % Lightspeed and the window for bomb release and detonation is down to 300 nanoseconds. I'm not a nuclear physicist and I'm sure they have thought of this problem already, but modern thermonuclear weapons take a millionth of a second to release the bulk of their radiation energy output. By the time that energy has hit the spacecraft it will be too far away for it to be effective. I can only imagine this method of propulsion will work if we make some incredible advances in the field of nuclear science. To clarify, the amount of material that was actually converted to pure energy in the Hiroshima bomb was measurable in fractions of a gram, yet to produce that energy we need a device that weighs thousands of kilos, and as a side effect, the uranium / plutonium atoms are broken apart into some of the most radioactively lethal elements known to man. If we can perfect the mass to energy conversion we may have a chance. A nuclear bomb can't even achieve a 1% conversion rate, which means more than 99% of the mass of a nuclear bomb core is unnecessary baggage.
Personally I think the discovery of the Higgs boson may be the key that allows us to travel at light speed, not just a fraction of it. If we can neutralize our mass, there is nothing to impede acceleration to ludicrous speeds.

[deanmine]

closer u get to the speed of light the more massive an object.... i think the key to light speed will have to be with "entanglement" or "spookey action from afar"..... quantum tunneling is another strange thing that we need to understand.... on the dark mater and dark energy side of things, who the fuck knows.....we got a pretty good grasp on the big stuff, were learning about the small stuff.... its this "dark" stuff that makes us look silly

[Xfactor]

Originally Posted by Ntwadumela

Scientists will build a spaceship when they figure out how to harness the unfathomably high quantities of energy that is released when matter and anti-matter are unionized.

Scientists are weary because an anti-matter bomb would make a nuke look like a stick of dynamite.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antimatter_weapon

Positron bomb don't emit radiation. Therefore we might use them.

[spycosis]

Originally Posted by Xfactor

Positron bomb don't emit radiation. Therefore we might use them.

What do you mean ? A positron bomb collides electrons and positrons together. Each collision produces 2 gamma ray photons, and the 2 opposing particles annihilate each other. They produce massive amounts of radiation.

[deanmine]

ya, cold fusion is the safer....the hypothetical dream they believe wont create radiation however some materials spontaneously and naturally emit radiation

[Xfactor]

Originally Posted by spycosis

What do you mean ? A positron bomb collides electrons and positrons together. Each collision produces 2 gamma ray photons, and the 2 opposing particles annihilate each other. They produce massive amounts of radiation.

Not sure but if I remember correctly in the mid 90s
the USAF named a antimatter weapons a positron bomb.

http://www.sfgate.com/science/articl...am-2689674.php

[spycosis]

Originally Posted by Xfactor

Not sure but if I remember correctly in the mid 90s
the USAF named a antimatter weapons a positron bomb.

http://www.sfgate.com/science/articl...am-2689674.php

You're correct. A positron bomb is an anti-matter weapon, so not actually past the drawing board stage yet. They can't produce antimatter in large enough quantities yet and there are huge problems regarding the stability of such a device.

[hunter86]

Travel by means of nuclear fusion would be far more efficient