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space travel

Started by tyrannosaurus vex, July 19, 2012, 12:26:40 AM

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tyrannosaurus vex

July 19, 2012, 12:26:40 AM
I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT PHYSICS AND RELATIVITY. This question will probably sound incredibly ignorant to someone who does, but I'm asking it anyway.

SO... Say you want to travel from Earth to Alpha Centauri (or wherever). It's hard to do that because it's "so far away" etc., and we can't travel "fast enough" to get there within anything approaching even a major epoch of Human history.

That is a simplistic explanation, of course, because it isn't like Earth is some stationary object -- it's hurtling through space at fuck knows how many miles per hour, and so is your destination.

So my question is:
If a spacecraft in Earth's orbit, it is still hurtling through space at roughly the same speed as the Earth due to the fact that it shares Earth's interstellar momentum (like throwing a baseball out of a moving car's window, minus wind resistance). Isn't that momentum already carrying an ungodly amount of kinetic energy, and can't we somehow "brake" the spacecraft's speed relative to Earth, causing it to speed away toward some other Destination in space which is hurtling toward it at the same speed Earth is hurtling away?

State how this question misses a bunch of obvious and elementary science in three sentences or more.
Evil and Unfeeling Arse-Flenser From The City of the Damned.

Forsooth

#1
July 19, 2012, 03:49:23 AM
if you are "braking" you wouldn't be moving away from the orbit off the earth. I don't think there is much else in the earths orbit path other than the moon (which is already moving faster than the earth, so you would have to accelerate even more to orbit it)

The Good Reverend Roger

#2
July 19, 2012, 04:08:18 AM
Braking = accelerating.
" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

tyrannosaurus vex

#3
July 19, 2012, 04:09:54 AM
Quote from: The Dead Reverend Roger on July 19, 2012, 04:08:18 AM
Braking = accelerating.
Not at least 3 sentences! :argh!:
Evil and Unfeeling Arse-Flenser From The City of the Damned.

The Good Reverend Roger

#4
July 19, 2012, 04:13:14 AM
Quote from: v3x on July 19, 2012, 04:09:54 AM
Quote from: The Dead Reverend Roger on July 19, 2012, 04:08:18 AM
Braking = accelerating.
Not at least 3 sentences! :argh!:

I chose to employ no sentences.

Because you aren't that big.  YOU'RE NOT THE BOSS OF ME.
" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

Telarus

#5
July 19, 2012, 07:21:43 AM
Quote from: The Dead Reverend Roger on July 19, 2012, 04:13:14 AM
Quote from: v3x on July 19, 2012, 04:09:54 AM
Quote from: The Dead Reverend Roger on July 19, 2012, 04:08:18 AM
Braking = accelerating.
Not at least 3 sentences! :argh!:

I chose to employ no sentences.

Because you aren't that big.  YOU'RE NOT THE BOSS OF ME.

:lulz:

And Rog lays out Gravity so that we can all understand it.
Telarus, KSC,
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(0o)  Tender to the Edible Zen Garden, Ratcheting Metallic Sex Doll of The End Times,
/||\   Episkopos of the Amorphous Dreams Cabal

Join the Doll Underground! Experience the Phantasmagorical Safari!

tyrannosaurus vex

#6
July 19, 2012, 07:24:12 AM
Also, they say you can't travel at the speed of light, but I say that's bullshit if you cheat. Just find an object that's moving toward you at half the speed of light, and you travel toward that object at the other half of the speed of light.
Evil and Unfeeling Arse-Flenser From The City of the Damned.

President Television

#7
July 19, 2012, 09:30:26 AM
Quote from: v3x on July 19, 2012, 07:24:12 AM
Also, they say you can't travel at the speed of light, but I say that's bullshit if you cheat. Just find an object that's moving toward you at half the speed of light, and you travel toward that object at the other half of the speed of light.

Yeah, but wouldn't the collision be horrible?
My shit list: Stephen Harper, anarchists that complain about taxes instead of institutionalized torture, those people walking, anyone who lets a single aspect of themselves define their entire personality, salesmen that don't smoke pipes, Fredericton New Brunswick, bigots, philosophy majors, my nemesis, pirates that don't do anything, criminals without class, sociopaths, narcissists, furries, juggalos, foes.

The Good Reverend Roger

#8
July 19, 2012, 01:59:00 PM
This country hasn't been the same since we started burning physics texts for heat.
" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

Nephew Twiddleton

#9
July 19, 2012, 02:56:53 PM
Quote from: v3x on July 19, 2012, 07:24:12 AM
Also, they say you can't travel at the speed of light, but I say that's bullshit if you cheat. Just find an object that's moving toward you at half the speed of light, and you travel toward that object at the other half of the speed of light.

Most celestial objects don't travel at relativistic speeds. This star system, for example, travels approximately 1 AU in orbit around the galaxy per week. Now, that's pretty fucking fast by our standards. But not even a decent fraction of the speed of light, since 1 AU is 8 light minutes. Celestial motion isn't going to help much with interstellar travel. If anything it's going to fuck things up. For example, we see Alpha Centauri from where it was 4 years ago. Imagine heading to a star system 100 light years away. You'd miss it completely unless you were constantly adjusting. You're completely fucked if you're going past the speed of light. It would be like getting lost down an endless array of side streets.
Strange and Terrible Organ Laminator of Yesterday's Heavy Scene
Sentence or sentence fragment pending

Soy El Vaquero Peludo de Oro

TIM AM I, PRIMARY OF THE EXTRA-ATMOSPHERIC SIMIANS

tyrannosaurus vex

#10
July 19, 2012, 03:02:18 PM
Quote from: Bruce Twiddleton on July 19, 2012, 02:56:53 PM
Quote from: v3x on July 19, 2012, 07:24:12 AM
Also, they say you can't travel at the speed of light, but I say that's bullshit if you cheat. Just find an object that's moving toward you at half the speed of light, and you travel toward that object at the other half of the speed of light.

Most celestial objects don't travel at relativistic speeds. This star system, for example, travels approximately 1 AU in orbit around the galaxy per week. Now, that's pretty fucking fast by our standards. But not even a decent fraction of the speed of light, since 1 AU is 8 light minutes. Celestial motion isn't going to help much with interstellar travel. If anything it's going to fuck things up. For example, we see Alpha Centauri from where it was 4 years ago. Imagine heading to a star system 100 light years away. You'd miss it completely unless you were constantly adjusting. You're completely fucked if you're going past the speed of light. It would be like getting lost down an endless array of side streets.

More evidence that physicists are just angry that they never got invited to all the cool parties, and they're getting us all back by declaring all of Humanity's hopes and dreams "impossible."

Evil and Unfeeling Arse-Flenser From The City of the Damned.

Nephew Twiddleton

#11
July 19, 2012, 03:05:49 PM
Quote from: v3x on July 19, 2012, 03:02:18 PM
Quote from: Bruce Twiddleton on July 19, 2012, 02:56:53 PM
Quote from: v3x on July 19, 2012, 07:24:12 AM
Also, they say you can't travel at the speed of light, but I say that's bullshit if you cheat. Just find an object that's moving toward you at half the speed of light, and you travel toward that object at the other half of the speed of light.

Most celestial objects don't travel at relativistic speeds. This star system, for example, travels approximately 1 AU in orbit around the galaxy per week. Now, that's pretty fucking fast by our standards. But not even a decent fraction of the speed of light, since 1 AU is 8 light minutes. Celestial motion isn't going to help much with interstellar travel. If anything it's going to fuck things up. For example, we see Alpha Centauri from where it was 4 years ago. Imagine heading to a star system 100 light years away. You'd miss it completely unless you were constantly adjusting. You're completely fucked if you're going past the speed of light. It would be like getting lost down an endless array of side streets.

More evidence that physicists are just angry that they never got invited to all the cool parties, and they're getting us all back by declaring all of Humanity's hopes and dreams "impossible."

Hey, I didn't say impossible, just really fucking difficult.

Also, if you want to cheat with light speed, you have to make the space around you move faster that light. We don't know if that's possible but it can't be ruled out yet. The Universe inflated past the speed of light when it had just been created.
Strange and Terrible Organ Laminator of Yesterday's Heavy Scene
Sentence or sentence fragment pending

Soy El Vaquero Peludo de Oro

TIM AM I, PRIMARY OF THE EXTRA-ATMOSPHERIC SIMIANS

The Good Reverend Roger

#12
July 19, 2012, 03:12:21 PM
Quote from: Bruce Twiddleton on July 19, 2012, 03:05:49 PM
The Universe inflated past the speed of light when it had just been created.

And just what's THAT all about, Mr Secular Humanist?
" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

Nephew Twiddleton

#13
July 19, 2012, 03:17:20 PM
Quote from: The Dead Reverend Roger on July 19, 2012, 03:12:21 PM
Quote from: Bruce Twiddleton on July 19, 2012, 03:05:49 PM
The Universe inflated past the speed of light when it had just been created.

And just what's THAT all about, Mr Secular Humanist?

Oh, I'm pretty sure that God does exist and he's playing tricks on us.  :lulz:
Strange and Terrible Organ Laminator of Yesterday's Heavy Scene
Sentence or sentence fragment pending

Soy El Vaquero Peludo de Oro

TIM AM I, PRIMARY OF THE EXTRA-ATMOSPHERIC SIMIANS

guryaf

#14
July 19, 2012, 04:04:10 PM
Quote from: Bruce Twiddleton on July 19, 2012, 02:56:53 PM
Imagine heading to a star system 100 light years away. You'd miss it completely unless you were constantly adjusting.

As far as I know, stars don't change their trajectory too often, so you could probably calculate where it is today and where it will be for the next few hundred years. Any society that could feasibly make a trip like that probably could, at least.
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