Sublight Propulsion

[Thorin]

relative time is the time that passes for one in reference to the time passing for another.
experienced time would be the same for all. it's your own personal view of time, so to everyone their moving normal.

What? Do you realise how ridiculous it is talking about experienced time? When was I ever talking about your personal view of time and of it seeming 'normal'. Saying you're talking about one and not the other is just absurd, it makes no sense. Time is relative. You can't talk about 'experienced time' when time itself is relative. If you're talking about time, you're talking about 'relative time' as you call it.

and yes the analagy he uses is generalized the leap is true. He even says right in there that we can think of speed through time similar to speed through space.

It was an analogy, what you said before was an almost mathematical explanation to speeds in space and time adding up to the speed of light, which is plain wrong. You made no reference to the fact what you were saying was an analogy or incorrect on a physical basis, which is quite important as you're talking about one of the most fundamental aspects of special relativity.

[Lazar]

Would it be plausible to have an ion drive as a sublight engine, like in Star Wars? I've heard that they can achieve very good specific impulse, but that their thrust is poor.

[Mikey]

Yes, it's plausible; but we'd have to assume some bit of sci-fi magic-tech to produce the quantity and velocity of ion detritus necessary.

[Lt. Staplic]

well, we'd have to have some serious tech breakthroughs. Right now, the Ion Pulse engine (yes we have woorking ones) is only able to move the satalite at about 1m/second...If I remember correctly. I just know it's pretty slow.

[Sionnach Glic]

Yeah, we're quite a long way away from moving mile-long warships with them.

[Lazar]

In addition to shuttles, we've seen several starships operating in planetary atmospheres in Trek. So do you think the impulse engine, which is basically a fusion rocket, would be safe to use in a planetary atmosphere? Would its exhaust contain any ionizing radiation?

[Tsukiyumi]

...Would its exhaust contain any ionizing radiation?

Maybe in tiny quantities. Fusion power only creates micrograms of radioactive waste; it couldn't be any worse than the tons of pollutants we pump into the air every day from power plants, cars, planes, etc.

[Mikey]

Better yet, what difference does it make if it does ionize the atmosphere? Lightning does that. The most probable result of ionizing the mid- to upper atmosphere is the creation of ozone from oxygen.

[Graham Kennedy]

I wonder if Kirk's BoP in ST IV fixed the hole in the ozone layer?!?!?!

[Mikey]

Temporarily, I'm afraid. Ozone is unstable, and breaks down fairly quickly naturally.

[Lt. Staplic]

In addition to shuttles, we've seen several starships operating in planetary atmospheres in Trek. So do you think the impulse engine, which is basically a fusion rocket, would be safe to use in a planetary atmosphere? Would its exhaust contain any ionizing radiation?

I don't see why not...the sun is basicly one giant fusion engine...while it's not operating in our atmosphere, it hits us with huge amounts of the radiation w/o any serious harm (until we start depleting our defences that is)

[Lazar]

I don't see why not...the sun is basicly one giant fusion engine...while it's not operating in our atmosphere, it hits us with huge amounts of the radiation w/o any serious harm (until we start depleting our defences that is)

Yeah, but it's hitting us from outside, and Earth's atmosphere and magnetic field deflect the worst of it.

[Mikey]

Still, ionization in the atmosphere isn't really a harmful process - it's a naturally occurring and beneficial one.