Ok, folks, let's assume the mEMe Drive does NOT break the laws of Physics, and actually works.
What significance will it have for society, politics and economics on Earth, and in the Solar System?
What difference will it make for mankind over the next few hundred years?
>>55446305
Easier exploration perhaps, which could lead to finding aliens, or lack of them and fermi paradox depression.
>>55446305
Potentially unlimited* acceleration, as long as it is powered even with a minimum charge (while in space).
Probably, using it to harvest asteroids for precious metals.
Potentially using it to get to the nearest solar systems in < 10 generations of humans.
>>55446305
ayy lmaos we are coming
>>55446631
I would be either laughing or fucking scared.
It'll make space exploration a little easier. Once we get something up there, traditionally we've needed extra fuel to take it wherever. Now, we don't need the extra fuel, and we can actually accelerate for an indefinate amount of time. So we can reasonably fly anywhere
>>55446305
If it's for real, it'll make asteroid mining a possibility within our lifetime.
Although this institution has be be gotten rid of so society will have enough wealth to pay the bill.
Bunch of dumb sh*ts in this thread. The acceleration is so slow (if it works), that a solar sail would be faster, cheaper and more reliable. Asteroids and star travel..... what a bunch of hooey.
>>55446616
No. Remember that aside electricity it still requires inexpensive gasses in order to ionize and generate thrust.
It's just one step into direction of space exploration and asteroid mining... however it brings even bigger problem with power generators.
Current power generators are RTGs that burn Pu-238 to produce electricity... And to have ~500W power source (not that much if you use it for propulsion) you'd need at least 1kg of Pu-238. (There's probably less than 30kg of usable Pu-238 in the world right now)
And solar power is useless after about 3Au from the sun... solar sail might go a bit further, but energy of the solar wind is losing strength as well...
So, until we also discover new ways of power generation, EM drive (if it works) is really limited...
>>55448976
That is an ion drive, which it is not, because it requires no fuel.
>>55449227
Didn't the Russian Lukhonod missions use an actual nuclear reactor, miniaturised, to power them?
>we would still need conventional rockets to get into orbit, but all you would need to go anywhere else is a simple fission reactor
>would reduce travel time from the Earth to the Moon to about 3 hours instead of 3 days
>would reduce travel time to Mars to a couple weeks instead of months
>manned trips to anywhere in the solar system within a single year
>could fly to alpha centauri within the span of a lifetime
>could fly across the galaxy in a mere 120,000 years
>>55446305
How exactly do EM drives break the laws of physics?
Electromagnetic radiation is a form of energy after all.
well a new space race would be for sure.
getting people to mars, saturns/jupiters moons etc....
>>55449429
Conservation of momentum. They generate thrust without expelling anything backwards somehow.
>>55449429
>How exactly do EM drives break the laws of physics?
Well, that's the thing, even if it works, it doesn't break the laws of physics... it just breaks our understanding of them because it creates thrust without anything being thrown out the rear.
Essentially, it throws Newton's Third Law of motion out the window and pisses on it.
http://teachertech.rice.edu/Participants/louviere/Newton/law3.html
>>55446305
Intersteller space travel is worthless until we solve the problem with women. We can't let these walking parasites infect other star systems.
Em drive makes you able to travel to other planets within this solar system. The means to travel to other stars comes after we colonized mars.
>>55449867
Every "law" is an imperfect understanding, ever-refined. So hopefully this will lead to an improved theory, one way or another.
>>55449986
>my girl dumped me
We get it, anon, but that's not the subject here.
>>55446631
But if we show up on other planets doesn't that make us the Ayy Lmaos?
>>55450357
>Planet 51
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KjuH9_2RB4
>>55450044
Pfft colonize Mars? Whatever dude... Hahaha fucking faggot german retard.
What's the point of actually making it work? As far as I understand the space isn't completely empty, there are stray asteroids and rocks that could damage any ship, and dust that will fuck with them in the long term. There's also cosmic rays and other kinds of radiation that are harmful to humans.
We still need at least 100 years of research to start with manned space exploration.
>>55450568
>there are stray asteroids and rocks that could damage any ship,
christ dude, do you know HOW FUCKING LARGE space is? there might be a rock floating around and then there is 5 billion kilometres nothing till you find another one.
>>55450568
[distant ayy lmao from interstellar space]
>>55450568
With that attitude, I can see why it was the US, and not Mexico, that went to the Moon....
>>55450474
nice clickbait
Russians will do as they always do and build one of those strapped to a nuclear reactor.
They will then use it to help Russian speakers on the Moon
>>55446305
>let's assume the mEMe Drive does NOT break the laws of Physics, and actually works
The laws of physics are not inviolate, they only hold true as far as we have yet discovered. We could be very mistaken or have inadequately framed them.
>>55450889
>clickbait
Youtube is a clickbait site now......
>>55450940
I know this, and you know this, but half of /sci/ is bleating about "muh Conservation of Momentum", so I threw that is to get to the point- the social effects.
>>55446305
White flight vs white genocide
>>55451164
What was the point of posting that link if all it shows is a bunch of colours for 2 fucking hours?
>>55451217
Carry on then. It never ceases to amaze me how many people claim be stem majors or graduates and yet do not grasp the fundamental principles of science.
There's some theorizing that the thrust is produced by ablation of material from the inside of the engine. The microwaves are heating up and knocking off tiny particles of the very metal it's made of and kicking it out the back, producing thrust. We won't know for sure until someone throws the thing in a vacuum chamber with some really elaborate detectors; weighing of the engine before and after firing, even with some pretty sensitive scales and care to avoid even the settling / removal of dust, hasn't turned up discrepencies.
But there's also the possibility it's popping energy out of quantum interactions with space itself, which is far more exciting.
>>55450568
>stray asteroids
Asteroid belts aren't like the movies. There's a 1km rock over here, and then there's a 1km rock several hundred thousand miles over there on a "bad" day.
Micrometeorites aren't a huge problem once you get Whipple shields and self-healing materials involved. You could also evaporate them with lasers. There's no way to hide anything in space, so a sufficiently sophisticated detection and fire control system could be clearing the space in front of a ship with ease. "Dust" can be wiped off.
All this, on top of the fact that space is overwhelmingly empty.
Cosmic rays can be shielded against. Storing water and waste in the hull surrounding living and working quarters provides enough hydrogen-rich shielding. The far greater threat to extended duration space travel isn't radiation (especially as you get further from the sun or other radiatin-spewing celestial bodies), but the effects of micro- and zero gravity on the human body.
As for why we should do it, it's insurance against our annihilation and there's sweet shit out there we can snag for back home. Why go through the trouble of moving mountains for a paltry bit of platinum when you can wrangle a tiny space rock that has more of the shit than humans have ever mined + ever will mine in the next hundred years combined?
>>55451217
/sci/, as with just about every new discovery or upcoming technology, is smart enough to know they should be skeptical, but not smart enough to know they should also be excited and considering possibilities other than "nope". Any time NASA has said DICK for the last few years, /sci/'s response has been "who cares". It's a homework help board more than anything.
They're either afraid of getting hurt or just want to show their intelligence by trying to rain on everyone's parade.
>Everything I don't agree with is a meme
I hate this
I hate you people
>>55451360
It works for me. Try these then:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqtfNobXpoo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JOeyJtBX1o
>>55451217
>but half of /sci/...
Is where this thread belongs.
>>55451740
Nope, you obviously cannot read my OP, so go back to >>>/b/.
I asked in the OP:
>What significance will it have for society, politics and economics on Earth, and in the Solar System?
>What difference will it make for mankind over the next few hundred years?
>>55451740
/sci/ a shit
They do nothing but spout memes and retardation while actual experts are discussing the topic in a serious manner
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=38577.1360
>>55449378
Not really.. Lunokhod used solar power.
However russians tested a bit different approach than RTG.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TOPAZ_nuclear_reactor
No clue how safe this is though... on the other hand Pu-238 RTGs were even used as cardiac pacemakers (some of them even run to this day inside of patients)
>>55451909
>/sci/ actually doesn't want NASA to test this....
Proof /sci/ is retarded:
>>7649636
Rebuttal of the idiot:
>>7652742
>>55449227
>And solar power is useless after about 3Au from the sun...
more than enough to mine for new earth asteroids.
>>55451217
Some laws are more rigid than others, but there's a reason they're called laws and not approximations.
The principles of conservation and thermodynamics for example seem to have universal validity. These laws are hard and fast and are deeply connected to symmetries of nature.
>>55446305
Well, it means satellites can station keep for as long as the parts work. That is - engine, solar panels, circuitry, etc.
That allows them to stay in orbit permanently, instead of only 5-15 years.
And it also allows them to be safely de-orbited without having to compromise on mass for extra 'de-orbit' fuel. Which in turn frees up space in orbit for newer and better satellites.
Would also allow for the first interstellar probes to be built.
>>55452721
>These laws are hard and fast
there is something else hard and fast
you should ask your mother about it when you get a chance
It really depends on power efficiency and the details.
Apparently there was someone saying it becomes an unlimited power machine.
>>55446631
What if
We are the ayy lamos
>>55446305
If it works, it has to be scalable to change anything.
>>55452721
They are called laws, yes, but read (pic related) first.
>>55452797
Yeah, people who can't into relativity do keep saying that.
>>55449227
Nuclear reactors work in space.
USSR actually put a couple in orbit before the Outer Space Treaty banned it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US-A
>>55453176
>Outer Space Treaty
First it stops the Orion project, now this....
>>55453177
Yeah, sorry, forgot to add /sci/.
>>55446305
Absolutely nothing. We already have better drives than this. It MIGHT be slightly better for long-distance probes on multi-decade missions.
>>55447934
>within our lifetime.
No.
>>55446616
>>55447934
>Probably, using it to harvest asteroids for precious metals.
Oh boy, bring on the technojesus memes. This drive wouldn't produce anywhere near enough thrust for that shit. You'd need maneuverability. This drive is only good for incremental acceleration over vast distances, and we already have drives that do that.
You people are all retards.
>>55448098
Thank you. Jesus Christ, the vast majority of people are too stupid to be deserving of possessing sex organs and should be sterilized to save the species.
>>55446407
The only depressing part is that none of the type II and III civilizations have found a way to travel faster than light to be able to make contact with us. It just takes too long to travel.
>>55455689
>The only depressing part is that none of the type II and III civilizations have found a way to travel faster than light to be able to make contact with us
we dont know that, thats based on the assumptions of
-they know where we are
-they actually want to contact us
>>55455880
You forgot:
>they actually exist.
>>55455689
a hundred year from now humanity will be a crowd of ignorant half-africans and teeming swarms of east asian peasantry sitting on the artifacts of a dead global civilization (i.e. nukes and who knows what else) that people will be just competent enough to misuse horribly.
why would any alien race want to make contact?
>>55446305
My thought is this: alright, you've accelerated it to a speed that's actually relevant in terms of the speed of light, like even something along the lines of .25c... You are nearing your destination; how the fuck do you slow down?
>>55456319
turn it around and accelerate in the other direction?
>>55448976
It's a completely fuelless drive. It (supposedly) generates thrust via microwaves alone. It doesn't use any fuel of any kind besides electricity.
A bit easier to send probes to pluto.
>>55456399
But then you have to apply the same amount of force over time (minus your desired entry speed). You'd have to start decelerating 60% into the trip to slow down from .25c to .001c
>>55456209
>why would any alien race want to make contact?
To tell humanity Hitler did nothing wrong.
>>55456497
thats how space travel works yes.
>>55456423
propellant, not fuel.
VERY important difference. Why?
For every action there is an equal but opposite reaction -- for rockets, you have to throw something in one direction to go the other direction. So, in your average rocket, you have to have huge amounts of propellant to just THROW OUT THE BACK LIKE TRASH to change velocity. And each pound of propellant costs some extra propellant just to move around. That's why rockets are so goddamned huge if they want to get anywhere.
