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It runs into the spaceship problem where later iterations of a spaceship reach the destination first because new technology allows them to fly faster. At some
by treis 5y ago
It runs into the spaceship problem where later iterations of a spaceship reach the destination first because new technology allows them to fly faster. At some point (maybe) materials and other technology will develop enough so that fusion becomes feasible on a decades or so timeline. Or solar & battery technology will develop to the point where fusion isn't really needed.
- netcraft 5y agoI was just talking about this the other day, its formal name is called the Wait Calculation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstellar_travel#Wait_calculation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstellar_travel#Wait_calcu...
- rytill 5y agoBut if the first spaceship was never developed, would the second spaceship have been?
- treis 5y agoSure because you develop technology while working on achievable goals. As an example, what could someone in 1920 do to help develop fusion power? Pretty much nothing that would be practically useful today. But they had stuff they could achieve which laid the groundwork to what we're doing today.
- lovehashbrowns 5y agoBut then you run into things that you only discover while trying to do something practical. Like the space shuttle having to land--NASA developed grooved runways specifically for this purpose and now they're on our highways. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/langley/news/factsheets/Groove.html https://www.nasa.gov/centers/langley/news/factsheets/Groove.... There are technologies, materials, and methods we've developed, tested, and perfected because of some specific need. I mean, how much of the internet do we have today as a result of CERN having to store and share vast amounts of data and information? Sure, you can say /eventually/ we would've come up with alternatives. But a lot of the internet and technology in the 90s came as a direct result of CERN doing practical things. How would we know we'd need solid state drives today if we didn't develop a need for hard drives? The same can be said of NASA, the space shuttle, the Hubble telescope, etc. Going back to CERN, maybe it would've been better to wait for the Superconducting Super Collider because it was going to be more powerful than the Large Hadron Collider. But so far only one of these particle accelerators has detected the Higgs boson.
- treis 5y agoYour examples agree with what I am saying. Target things you can build today.
- ClumsyPilot 5y agoHow does it make any sense for science? If noone builds version 1, there will be no version 2. You can't skip inventing ironworks because eventually titanium will be invented.
- guhidalg 5y agoIt's an interesting sci-fi thought, but why wouldn't the second spaceship just catch up with the first one and pick up the passengers to avoid their unnecessary travel time?
- taftster 5y agoIncompatible docking apparatus, not backwards compatible. Engineers invented these doors, after all.
- HeyLaughingBoy 5y agoSo? If you know there's another spaceship that you're going to pass and you need to pick people up, you make your docking apparatus backwards compatible. This isn't rocket science :-)
- tsol 5y agoYes but this spaceship was made by Apple. It's a feature.
- antod 5y agoBecause you'd have to leave the 2nd one nearly empty to fit the extra passengers in? Might be a good idea if nobody wants to go on the 2nd ship though.
- LocalPCGuy 5y agoWhy pick up the passengers only? Plan ahead and build it to pick up the entire ship, including not just the passengers but all the materials and supplies they had packed as well.