Let's design a spaceship

LOL! Ever see the movie "FleshGordon"?

 

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No, but you make me curious.

 

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http://www.thespinningimage.co.uk/cultfilms/displaycultfilm.asp?reviewid=2270

"A mysterious affliction has changed the face of Planet Earth: an irresistable effect from outer space known as the "Sex Ray" for its powers over the inhabitants. Orgies are breaking out across the globe, but respected scientist Professor Gordon (John Hoyt) calls a press conference to announce that not everyone is affected and his son, Flesh Gordon (Jason Williams), is on his way back from an ice hockey tournament in Tibet to sort things out. Unfortunately Flesh's flight is hit by the ray, leaving no one at the controls - is his adventure over before it has begun?"

 

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nuclear missiles to defend ourselves..

 

Well i dont want to be the devils advocat, but doesnt the fact that the closest star polaris is what 4 million lightyears away, mean that with our fastest engines, the crew's childrens childrens childrens childrens childrens childrens childrens childrens childrens childrens childrens childrens childrens childrens childrens childrens childrens childrens will be long dead by the time we reach midway?

Now as silly as suggesting we use a faster than light "warp" like travel may sound considering it is fictional, we have to accept the fact that the only way this would work is if we have faster than light engines.

 

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Proxima Centauri, 4.3 light years.

 

Where did you get this idea? Do a little research...

 

4 million light years away isn't even in our galaxy........

 

How about a large asteroid for a spaceship? Hollow it out and build an entire city inside. You could do this over time until the city was self sustaining. Then, "set sail". The bulk of the asteroid would serve as some protection from radiation and whatnot. This would, of course, be a generation ship. Sublight, with it's inhabitants living out their lives within the asteroid like the inhabitants of any other city. But this city moves thru space and, when a suitable planet is found, it leaves behind some colonists. Seeding humanity throughout the galaxy.

 

that's brilliant.

 

Ion drives have a very fast exhaust, so could theoretically reach high speed; unfortunately they have very low thrust (you can't use them to take off from a planet, for instance) so you would take far too long (and use far too much propellant) to reach high speeds. What you need for an interstellar ship is either
1/ a drive which gives a very high thrust (antimatter drives are the best, fusion drives especially pulsed fusion or anti-matter catalysed fusion drives might just suffice)
or
2/a low thrust option which does not need on-board fuel or propellant, such as a light sail or particle-beam drive.

Then you want to know how you are going to accommodate your passengers. Are you going to freeze them for the decades or centuries the journey will take? Or let them have children inside a huge so-called generation ship?

This page, which is based on a post I made here on Sciforums many years ago, gives some of the options.
http://eg.orionsarm.com/eg-article/488ee89fd34a0

So; there are many choices. Any preference?

 

Since ion drives have very fast exhaust, it takes much less propellant to reach high speeds. The problem is that they burn through their fuel very very slowly, which is why they have such low thrust (and why it takes so long to get up to speed).

 

Ah yes. Thanks. The end result is that you would take a long time, using an ion drive, to get up to speed; so long that you would take a long time even to get to the escape velocity of the Solar System.

Ion drives are really only useful when you have got a lot of time on your hands.

Perhaps the best self-contained ship for a first misssion would be a Daedalus-type ship, one which uses a very large number of tiny fusion bombs to get up to speed.

 

anyways, other than Titan and mars, maybe venus, what is the closest possibly habitable planet to earth?

The fact remains that none of this is plausib le until atleast 100 years from now.

Look at the mars rover, it takes 15 minutes to send a signal, how long would it take for that spaceship to get a signal? is it even possible to send a clear signal that far out without it degrading?

And if the ship veers off course a little bit, to say, avoid an unseen asteroid, we would have no idea where they are until a few days later, assuming the ship survives the experiance.

And the chances of survival are tiny, i seriously doubt anyone would send astronaughts on such a risky mission.

So unless we gain the ability to go faster than light, were stuck in the mud.

 

Bussard ramjet propulsion would make a nice solution, since reaching near light speed would take most of a ship's fuel, even if it was in the form of anti-matter weighing half the ship. Free hydrogen in space however, the most efficent nuclear fuel, would make on-board fuel unnecessary. The problem is generating a large enough magnetic field and ionizing interstellar hydrogen. A thin mono-molecular web spread out over thousands of miles and an extermely high-power lazer could perhaps accomplish this. The hydrogen could be drawn into a central magnetic fusion choke-point at relativistic speed and fused in a split-second producing impulse. After that, the problem is keeping humans alive with all the self-generated cosmic rays which miss the choke-point. Keeping humans alive in space should be difficult enough.