Re: starship-design: Zero point energy: Power source

[KellySt@aol.com]

In a message dated 6/12/97 1:07:47 AM, you wrote:

>KellySt@aol.com writes:
> > I'm less convinced that FTL is impossible.  How you could do it seems to
a
> > ton of duling techno/physics bable.  (We all probably get the same books
on
> > the subject.)  But physics changes frequently, and dramatically.  So I
expect
> > this impossibility will fall in a generation or six.
>
>I think you put it best in your public response to Kyle when you said
>that FTL is probably a bit too speculative for 2050 technology, and
>certainly too speculative given our current knowledge of physics.

Definatly.

>A revolution in physics that makes FTL possible will change a lot of
>other things too.  It's just not as easy as saying "yes, you really can
>make something go FTL"; you have to reconcile the FTL effects with a lot
>of other things.  I know, and most physicists admit, that the "causal
>ordering principle" is just an assumption, not a proven law of nature,
>but there are also no known violations of it, making it a pretty safe
>assumption.

Conservation of mass was an equally universally true and fundamental
assumption until a couple of decades ago.


> > On the other hand if we can't do FTL I'm very sure we won't do much
> > interstellar travel.  The time delay simply makes it unsupportable,
> > unproductive, and uninteresting.  People couldn't colonize, exploration
would
> > be to slow, who'ld pay for wandering ships they'ld never see return
anything.
> >  We'ld probably just build bigger and bigger scopes and study the stars
that
> > way.
>
>Sublight interstellar travel will really require a different cultural
>mindset than we currently apply to exploration.  It will certainly
>require an outlook more oriented towards pure exploration rather than on
>short-term return.


More then that.  The rediculasly poor return on such projects.  I.E. it could
be decades to centuries to get back any info.  Puts them in an uncomfortable
catch-22.  If you really want the info, your not going to be that patient.
 If your not in that much of a hurry.  Why not wait a couple more deacades
(or centuries) for the launches?

Kelly