I LOVE the Discovery channel...

[Skorixor]

was just watching a show about the moon, making a moon base, and using that base to travel into the galaxy

then there were these guys showing their ideas on how to travel the galaxy from there...

first off, was a STEAM powered rocket that had a huge ice filled intertube the size of a football field that spun to produce artificial gravity, and this ship could be made with current tech

the second guys approach was a launching device on the moon, almost identical to the Superman Roller coaster ride, that through mag-lev accelerates you across a track and then the track raises up and shoots you towards your destination

then the coolest one...he wants to use a pod with a solar sail that is miles in front of the pod, and to get the sail/pod moving, the pod would shoot out a nuclear ICBM at the sail, having it explode between the pod and the sail...the explosion pushes the sail, attached to the pod, and then the whole thing apparatus flings itself forward at MILLIONS of MPH...and subsequent missiles could be fired to make it accelerate even more...

waaaay cool

[Keer]

I was just watching the same set of shows. Discovery's been running that series steadily for a few years now and each time I see them, it's hard to break away.

Keep a watch out for another Discovery one discussing the possible biological modifications that future human astronauts may have to make for deep space travel. It's strange, but mind blowing.

[Skorixor]

or how about the part about the first moon dwellings...that since it's too expensive to bring the materials up to the moon, that they would have to make their own adobe style huts to live in!

[X'an Shin]

Keep a watch out for another Discovery one discussing the possible biological modifications that future human astronauts may have to make for deep space travel. It's strange, but mind blowing.

Can you PM me when this is going to be on? I love bio-engineering stuff.

[Keer]

Keep a watch out for another Discovery one discussing the possible biological modifications that future human astronauts may have to make for deep space travel. It's strange, but mind blowing.

Can you PM me when this is going to be on? I love bio-engineering stuff.

Will do. I *might* even have it recorded somewhere on VHS, but I'll have to dig for it. If so, I'll pass it along.

[X'an Shin]

Keep a watch out for another Discovery one discussing the possible biological modifications that future human astronauts may have to make for deep space travel. It's strange, but mind blowing.

Can you PM me when this is going to be on? I love bio-engineering stuff.

Will do. I *might* even have it recorded somewhere on VHS, but I'll have to dig for it. If so, I'll pass it along.

Sweeeeet. They were just showing a special or at least advertising (I think) a new special on visiting the planets. Like, they just theorized that even in a special suit, an astronaut would have less than an hour to function on the surface of Venus. I guess before they cooked?

At any rate, that show looked pretty promising as well.

[xyryn]

About the solar sail...what would it be made of? And how did the guy say the pod would be shielded against the cncentrated radiation of the warhead that the pod would have to go thru?

Any kind of shielding would have to increase the mass of the pod, and therefore its inertia. What would be the mechanism for stopping the pod at journeys end? And would the pod be a generation ship? If so, how big would it have to be? That is another inertia question, btw.

The thot of how long it would take to bring that kind of mass to a stop is boggling. :shock:

[Skorixor]

About the solar sail...what would it be made of? And how did the guy say the pod would be shielded against the cncentrated radiation of the warhead that the pod would have to go thru?

Any kind of shielding would have to increase the mass of the pod, and therefore its inertia. What would be the mechanism for stopping the pod at journeys end? And would the pod be a generation ship? If so, how big would it have to be? That is another inertia question, btw.

The thot of how long it would take to bring that kind of mass to a stop is boggling. :shock:

lol, it wasn't THAT detailed...

as far as inertia, I don't know if that applies in space

[warsloth]

CAUTION POSSIBLE SENSATIVE MATERIAL AHEAD
(this message originally started out as something, then turned into a personal rant... sorry)

oh, I think scientists are pretty funny, especially that whole evolution thing. I would like to see their explanation for the change in number of chromosomes. The closest ecample of that happening in recorded history, it doesn't turn out so well for this "evolutionary" superior being. Example: Down Syndrome- the wonderful 21st chromosome. You want to know something though. I think sometimes retarded or mentally handicapped folks are superior to me. They don't lose focus of life, or care about material things. In some cases that I have seen they almost make me want to cry because they are so happy.
This one older fellow that I know has down syndrome, I see him every other week or so, but he took the time to learn my name, just so he could say Hi. And he says Hi to me whenever I see him, smiles and waves. He doesn't care about his "problems" he isn't frustrated by his life. He just lives, and loves. He's a better human being than I will ever be in this lifetime. I think that his simplicity, or rather the simplicity in which he lives does make him superior to me. Maybe it's like this concept called "childlike innocence," something that isn't even available to most children. And while we may think there is no greater evil than to corrupt a child, we do it to them every day with our school systems, TV and all this garbage. Not that what you may see on TV is corrupting them, but we aren't raising our children, we are leaving that to televisions, and the great "education system," which has also become the biggest daycare system known to man. How do we as a society justify the need for TV, Cable, and a Lexus over someone to stay home and raise a child. I can't tell you how many households only have two breadwinners just to afford superficial things that crumble, rust, and fade away.
I can't tell you (thanks to forum rules and moderators) what makes me see things this way. And why I know that we are all made from dirt, but I can say that we all have a spirit. And regardless of what body has been formed out of dirt, through our consumption of plants (which suck up the dirt, and grow from it) and animals who consume plants (in essence, eating dirt) it is just a vessel for our souls. When we die, our bodies will return to the dirt. Our souls will leave those bodies, and into whatever destination they will. In this time we have a chance to make a difference, there is a chance to be something different. It doesn't make any difference what is out there. We are here for a reason. Anyone who wants to dispute this can take it up with me in PM. But I want everyone to know that I feel evolution is a great lie. Which is exactly why it is a THEORY, but often taught as a LAW. There is only one law that rules in this life, and I hope maybe in the short time I have been on this board, and RP'ing in the game, that I have gotten it across.
The Law of Love supercedes everything. It is a key in living. But you could look at all the negatives, or focus on the one positive, that in this life our purpose in living is FOR love. And while we may be walking around this dirtpile in a dirtsuit we will eventually be leaving it behind. For each of us this will likely be unexpected, but what we can expect is that we will reap what we sow. Where we go from here is up to us, and where we are going we don't change things. Here is where we can make a difference. Here we are destined to Love. If we could come together we would find a true and everlasting peace together. I don't have much else to say. All I can hope is that this message is not modded. If someone wants to discuss this with me please send me a PM.

I will say, in hope of preservation, that it is not in any way an expressed opinion of SWGtales. Nor should it be taken as such

(edited to add indentations and seperate paragraphs, for Skor)

[Skorixor]

whar, WTH does this have to do with the discovery channel and space travel?

if it wasn't for you grouping the whole thing into one eyesore of a paragraph, I might have read the whole thing and been even more confused as to what your point is

[Keer]

About the solar sail...what would it be made of? And how did the guy say the pod would be shielded against the cncentrated radiation of the warhead that the pod would have to go thru?

Any kind of shielding would have to increase the mass of the pod, and therefore its inertia. What would be the mechanism for stopping the pod at journeys end? And would the pod be a generation ship? If so, how big would it have to be? That is another inertia question, btw.

The thot of how long it would take to bring that kind of mass to a stop is boggling. :shock:

I remember seeing that show, but I don't remember the exact answers to the questions you've raised, which are good ones.

But, here are some possible solutions:

Radiation Shielding: depending on the payload, the Pod could be shielded well enough to withstand the blast at close (close in space terms anyway) range. There are relatively small bunkers on Earth that can survive nuclear blasts.

Braking Speed: If it's a space sailing ship, there could be a space "anchor", or rather another sail that could be deployed from the rear of the Pod that reacts to another detonation (with the forward sail or furled or closed) "pulling" the craft to a slower speed or gradual stop.

Less drastically, the gravity of stars and planets could be used to brake the speed of the craft. It would take awhile, but it's feasible.

Just a guess though.

[warsloth]

sorry... uh.. It started out about space travel, but that part made the rest look even worse... so my gripe needed somewhere to go... let me break up the paragraphs. lets just say it's late for me, Im bored, and it was just the wrong place at the wrong time. I omitted my joke about space travel, generation ships (which I have no clue as to what that means) and how if it were a distant planet, and it took a couple generations to reach it, what if they were born mentally handicapped. which turned out to not look good with a topic in my rant. also, I was stopped in the middle of a tear jerker movie, and was waiting on my wife to get off the phone so I could conclude it, I made similar rants on other forums, but luckily it was contained after about 3 outbreaks.

[Seret Sajet]

sorry... uh.. It started out about space travel, but that part made the rest look even worse... so my gripe needed somewhere to go... let me break up the paragraphs. lets just say it's late for me, Im bored, and it was just the wrong place at the wrong time. I omitted my joke about space travel, generation ships (which I have no clue as to what that means) and how if it were a distant planet, and it took a couple generations to reach it, what if they were born mentally handicapped. which turned out to not look good with a topic in my rant. also, I was stopped in the middle of a tear jerker movie, and was waiting on my wife to get off the phone so I could conclude it, I made similar rants on other forums, but luckily it was contained after about 3 outbreaks.

You sir are like a religious time bomb waiting to go off. Thats ok, I appreciate this is how you think and this is the way you roll. I just ask that in the future you try to stay on topic and realize there is a time and place for such dicussions. A disclaimer will just not do here. If you think your material is sensitive then you probably shouldn't post it.

[warsloth]

but... but... paragraphs Seret... I made paragraphs!!!


Roger... Orders recieved.

[Seret Sajet]

but... but... paragraphs Seret... I made paragraphs!!!


Roger... Orders recieved.

Indeed, they were fine paragraphs, foreign objects of the message board world if you will.

And trust me Whar, I'd rather have the task of modding your posts than dealing with the crap-covered gibberish I see all over the SOE forums. Sometimes the mods forget how good we have it here.