Hot Shit! It's the future I've been waiting for!

[Faust]

I don't know how well I can explain it.

This summed up the gravitational effect on time and was the basis of the super heavy Donut warp drive...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitational_time_dilation

"Gravitational time dilation has been experimentally measured using atomic clocks on airplanes. The clocks aboard the airplanes were slightly faster with respect to clocks on the ground. The effect is significant enough that the Global Positioning System's artificial satellites need to have their clocks corrected.[4]"

The aeroplanes further away from the large mass experienced a greater elapsed time relative to the earthbound counterparts.

So if I'm reading this right the doughnut causes gravitational time dilation so a journey that for people on earth the relative time frame of the crafts journey is a matter of weeks, but it's relative time-frame is much longer.

I may have that completely messed up though because quantum mechanics wasn't my strongest subject.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

I don't know how well I can explain it.

This summed up the gravitational effect on time and was the basis of the super heavy Donut warp drive...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitational_time_dilation

"Gravitational time dilation has been experimentally measured using atomic clocks on airplanes. The clocks aboard the airplanes were slightly faster with respect to clocks on the ground. The effect is significant enough that the Global Positioning System's artificial satellites need to have their clocks corrected.[4]"

The aeroplanes further away from the large mass experienced a greater elapsed time relative to the earthbound counterparts.

So if I'm reading this right the doughnut causes gravitational time dilation so a journey that for people on earth the relative time frame of the crafts journey is a matter of weeks, but it's relative time-frame is much longer.

I may have that completely messed up though because quantum mechanics wasn't my strongest subject.

Ah, it's the actual weight of the thing. Or rather the mass. Would the dilation be that strong though? Even with a fuel-tank holding M_J, the time dilation wouldn't be that strong would it?

[Faust]

Well that's the thing, they claim they can get the same effect with relatively little mass. How that can be achieved is something I'd be interested in reading. But if the principle of gravitational time dilation is still the core mechanic they will be subject to that more-elapsed-time on the craft problem to overcome.

[P3nT4gR4m]

All you have to do is put the passengers into cryostasis

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I don't know how well I can explain it.

This summed up the gravitational effect on time and was the basis of the super heavy Donut warp drive...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitational_time_dilation

"Gravitational time dilation has been experimentally measured using atomic clocks on airplanes. The clocks aboard the airplanes were slightly faster with respect to clocks on the ground. The effect is significant enough that the Global Positioning System's artificial satellites need to have their clocks corrected.[4]"

The aeroplanes further away from the large mass experienced a greater elapsed time relative to the earthbound counterparts.

So if I'm reading this right the doughnut causes gravitational time dilation so a journey that for people on earth the relative time frame of the crafts journey is a matter of weeks, but it's relative time-frame is much longer.

I may have that completely messed up though because quantum mechanics wasn't my strongest subject.

That's basically how I understood it when I was reading about it, but that was probably at least ten years ago. I'm not sure how exactly that particular law of physics could be circumvented, but then again I'm not a physicist.

[Faust]

I don't know how well I can explain it.

This summed up the gravitational effect on time and was the basis of the super heavy Donut warp drive...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitational_time_dilation

"Gravitational time dilation has been experimentally measured using atomic clocks on airplanes. The clocks aboard the airplanes were slightly faster with respect to clocks on the ground. The effect is significant enough that the Global Positioning System's artificial satellites need to have their clocks corrected.[4]"

The aeroplanes further away from the large mass experienced a greater elapsed time relative to the earthbound counterparts.

So if I'm reading this right the doughnut causes gravitational time dilation so a journey that for people on earth the relative time frame of the crafts journey is a matter of weeks, but it's relative time-frame is much longer.

I may have that completely messed up though because quantum mechanics wasn't my strongest subject.

That's basically how I understood it when I was reading about it, but that was probably at least ten years ago. I'm not sure how exactly that particular law of physics could be circumvented, but then again I'm not a physicist.

Yeah I was trying to figure out how to circumvent it, the only real way I could think of is if the centre of the bubble operated in the higher relative timeframe to the surrounding bubble that allows for that fast travel, but I'm fairly certain that would violate relativity because it the centre would then be travelling faster then the speed of light.

[Golden Applesauce]

How do you orient the thing so that it goes forward? What makes the front the implodey region and the back the expandy region?

[The Johnny]

People could actually breed inside the spaceship, so, maybe 1st generation wont live to see it, but one would eventually.

Unless everyone dies from bone density decay or crashes into a meteor, but thats just pessimistic, right?

[Nephew Twiddleton]

People could actually breed inside the spaceship, so, maybe 1st generation wont live to see it, but one would eventually.

Unless everyone dies from bone density decay or crashes into a meteor, but thats just pessimistic, right?

If you get rid of the relativistic effects of a large mass though, there's no problem, especially since we have to get rid of the mass problem for separate reasons anyway. (The most obvious of which is that you don't want something about the same mass, and therefore, gravitational pull, as Jupiter in Earth orbit anyway).

I'm still not getting why the mass would have that much of an effect on the time on the ship though. Actually for two reasons- the first being that would it actually have that much of a noticeable effect on the amount of time that is perceived as passing? We should be able to measure the differences between here and Jupiter by putting a satellite in Jupiter orbit and just monitoring the difference between the two.

The other reason is, doesn't higher gravity end up slowing time down? That is to say, from our perspective, the ship would be moving away at faster than the speed of light, but if we could see the people on board, they would barely be moving, since time is going faster for us? If anything, that's even more of a boon, no?

Unless I'm missing something entirely, which is quite possible.

[Faust]

People could actually breed inside the spaceship, so, maybe 1st generation wont live to see it, but one would eventually.

Unless everyone dies from bone density decay or crashes into a meteor, but thats just pessimistic, right?

We'll yes, and the thousands of years worth of food and the oxygen issue although those are probably the easier things to fix.

[Bruno]

Could we use frozen embryos and raise them with robots?

[Faust]

Could we use frozen embryos and raise them with robots?

If you get funding and a lab that wont get burned down by protesters I'd say go for it.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

People could actually breed inside the spaceship, so, maybe 1st generation wont live to see it, but one would eventually.

Unless everyone dies from bone density decay or crashes into a meteor, but thats just pessimistic, right?

If you get rid of the relativistic effects of a large mass though, there's no problem, especially since we have to get rid of the mass problem for separate reasons anyway. (The most obvious of which is that you don't want something about the same mass, and therefore, gravitational pull, as Jupiter in Earth orbit anyway).

I'm still not getting why the mass would have that much of an effect on the time on the ship though. Actually for two reasons- the first being that would it actually have that much of a noticeable effect on the amount of time that is perceived as passing? We should be able to measure the differences between here and Jupiter by putting a satellite in Jupiter orbit and just monitoring the difference between the two.

The other reason is, doesn't higher gravity end up slowing time down? That is to say, from our perspective, the ship would be moving away at faster than the speed of light, but if we could see the people on board, they would barely be moving, since time is going faster for us? If anything, that's even more of a boon, no?

Unless I'm missing something entirely, which is quite possible.

[Reginald Ret]

Hang on, let me see if i got this right.
Gravity compresses space and makes local time go slower.
Expanding space makes local time go faster.
It sounds like a 'wherever you go, there you are'  problem, the effect that gives you speed is the same effect that makes the journey take longer.
The extend to wich you accelerate is directly proportional to how much subjective time you experience.

Wait, doesn't getting closer to the speed of light make local time go slower?
Then this engine should be combined with traditional acceleration:
Use one for the trip there, making you age faster than your peers back on earth, and use the other for the trip back making you age slower than your peers back on earth.
The net difference in experienced time should be zero.

[Faust]

Hang on, let me see if i got this right.
Gravity compresses space and makes local time go slower.
Expanding space makes local time go faster.
It sounds like a 'wherever you go, there you are'  problem, the effect that gives you speed is the same effect that makes the journey take longer.
The extend to wich you accelerate is directly proportional to how much subjective time you experience.

Wait, doesn't getting closer to the speed of light make local time go slower?
Then this engine should be combined with traditional acceleration:
Use one for the trip there, making you age faster than your peers back on earth, and use the other for the trip back making you age slower than your peers back on earth.
The net difference in experienced time should be zero.

I don't think you can get the kind of relative time acceleration you want with the speed of light.

For instance something travelling away from us at 3 x 10 ^ 7 m/s for 1000 years only creates a local lag of 5 years.

http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=time+dilation+calculator&a=*FS-_**RelativisticTimeDilationFormula.t-.*RelativisticTimeDilationFormula.to-.*RelativisticTimeDilationFormula.v--&f2=1000+year&f=RelativisticTimeDilationFormula.to_1000+year&f3=3x10^8+m%2Fs&x=6&y=6&f=RelativisticTimeDilationFormula.v\u005f3x10^8+m%2Fs