Earth to Mars In Just One Week?

[Boingo the Clown]

Check out what the fine engineer is promising us!

http://www.photonics.com/content/news/2007/September/7/88894.aspx

[rustyslacker]

How unnervingly Trek-esque..

[Nomad]

Very cool. I didn't see anywhere, but what fuel is used for the energy? I've heard of similar things before that are powered more or less by a large solar "sail" that collects light with mirrors and focuses it to a single laser beam--I wonder if that is what this is a part of.

[blood imp]

Wheej!!!!!! This is a good thing. And it's pretty cool.

[Aliotroph?]

It's electric. You can power it with whatever you want but on a spacecraft it's probably gonna be fuel cells, radioisotope thermoelectric generators, real nuclear reactors or photovoltaic cells.

Some solar sail concepts do indeed propose giant solar-powered lasers to push the sail, but you can use the sunlight for those too. This thing is just a fancy laser-powered thruster though. Pretty sweet stuff.

[rustyslacker]

It's electric.
I pictured Winona singing the song.

It's electric! *l7*

[xbolt]

No, I'm sure that it runs on AA's. Or, perhaps a couple D's?

[Aliotroph?]

I pictured Winona singing the song.

It's electric! *l7*

LOL In that case I hope she can sing. I can't remember ever seeing her try. :D

[Doom_Dude]

Wow that is pretty cool stuff. :D

[Revenant]

Or maybe AAA's? xD

No, I'm sure that it runs on AA's. Or, perhaps a couple D's?

[JohnnyRancid]

AA's are a little more universal and easier to obtain.

[Aliotroph?]

Both of them are equally easy to obtain; you go to the store and buy them. :p

[Revenant]

AA's are a little more universal and easier to obtain.

Right you are.

[BeTaNoL]

Blood imp, that "the presence" scares teh shit outta me...

i ran the spectogram in my pc and I saw it... pretty cool.. I want to hide my face within a music somehow.. but anyway, I dunno why but that image of that hand scares the shit outta me!

[blood imp]

Blood imp, that "the presence" scares teh shit outta me...

i ran the spectogram in my pc and I saw it... pretty cool.. I want to hide my face within a music somehow.. but anyway, I dunno why but that image of that hand scares the shit outta me!
Really? I'd say it's just pure win. Unfortunately for me, I'm too noobish to know how to run spectograms... but luckily there is an image on Wikipedia! :D
Hiding your face within static would be cool indeed. I know that a phone number was hidden once.

[Aliotroph?]

And then there were the nuclear engines: http://www.tfot.info/news/1006/mini-mag-orion-will-reach-for-the-stars.html

and the antimatter engines: http://www.tfot.info/articles/33/new-antimatter-engine-design.html

[Pieter Enis]

'bout damn time they'd get started on that :p
Something I saw yesterday on National Geographic: Sugar as a power source.
Dunno if it was for laughs or not, but the idea seems interesting enough, next thing we know we'll be mass producing sugar beets and stuffing them into our jetpacks we got with a note saying "Sorry we're about 20 years late with these"!

[BeTaNoL]

Really? I'd say it's just pure win. Unfortunately for me, I'm too noobish to know how to run spectograms... but luckily there is an image on Wikipedia! :D
Hiding your face within static would be cool indeed. I know that a phone number was hidden once.

Apex Twin (i think) hid his face in a song... I shit myself when I saw it, so ugly! I don't remebmer the song name, but you can try searching it on google, about spectograms and stuff... that's more common that you think!

And about running a spectogram, download the Goldwave program, the demo allows you to use it, it simple, just turn it on and than play the music...

It's freaking disturbing!

[blood imp]

Cool, thanks.
Anyway, I've spoken to my science class about this in a speed-of-light discussion. Even though 100 km/s is fast, he was extremely un-impressed, stating that it's "still not as fast".

[Aliotroph?]

That's because the speed of light is something like 2.99x10^5 km/s. :p

[blood imp]

I know, but still, for us, 100 km/s is bloody fast! :p

[Pieter Enis]

One can run about 20km/h, so it's about 5 times as fast.
Not really that fast :p

[Nomad]

Uh. Pieter, km/h and km/s are completely different. 100km/s is 6,000 kilometers a minute. That means 100km/s is 360,000 kilometers an hour. I'm pretty sure that is more than five times 20km/h.

[blood imp]

One can run about 20km/h, so it's about 5 times as fast.
Not really that fast :p
What Nomad said.

[Aliotroph?]

Hehehe, wanted to see if I could trap somebody in that one. Most people are used to thinking in km/h and not km/s. I'm evil. ;)

[Nomad]

I'm used to thinking in miles per hour. Perhaps that is how I was able to catch it so easily. :P

[Aliotroph?]

Silly Americans and your weird units. :p

[Nomad]

To be honest, the US Customary System doesn't make any sense, and we should have converted to using Metrics a long time ago.

[blood imp]

I don't get feet and miles and such. I mean, com'on.

12 inches = 1 foot
3 feet = 1 yard
1760 yards (5280 feet) = 1 mile

It makes no sense. 10s are so much easier! :D

[BeTaNoL]

metric system owns.. its all on 10's

and by the way

1 mile = 1,6km

[JohnnyRancid]

I don't get feet and miles and such. I mean, com'on.

12 inches = 1 foot
3 feet = 1 yard
1760 yards (5280 feet) = 1 mile

It makes no sense. 10s are so much easier! :D

We know it sucks! but all the american products we have are based on that system, so we cant change it. Stop making fun of us!

[rustyslacker]

1 mile = 1,6km
0.609 mi = 1 km

[Nomad]

The shorthand for mile is 'mi', rutsy. 'm' is meter.

[Doom_Dude]

The BIG question is, will this engine work in space after it's stuck on a vehicle? That's what I want to know.

I find it weird that we don't have a station on the moon and we just seem to be idling and not doing any real space exploration stuffs beyond a shuttle mission and a few probes.

[Boingo the Clown]

They are just going to have to do some test runs in space to see if it works is all.

1 mile = 1,6km

1.602 km if I recall. <<Correction: 1.609 km>>

1 pound = 454 grams (assuming grams as weight instead of mass)

[rustyslacker]

The shorthand for mile is 'mi', rutsy. 'm' is meter.
Don't know what you're talkin' about

[Aliotroph?]

We know it sucks! but all the american products we have are based on that system, so we cant change it. Stop making fun of us!

We changed. And Ninja changed. In fact those guys changed recently enough that he should be able to tell you about it. :p

[Nomad]

The BIG question is, will this engine work in space after it's stuck on a vehicle? That's what I want to know.

What do you mean?

[Aliotroph?]

Yeah, why wouldn't it?

[FATAL]

1 pound = 454 grams (assuming grams as weight instead of mass)
Except!

Weight is measured in newtons. Ha ha! :p

[Revenant]

I find it weird that we don't have a station on the moon.

The answer is money. never enough money.... seems to be my problem too..

[Doom_Dude]

The answer is money. never enough money.... seems to be my problem too......and the money is being wasted on war and other stupid crap.

[Revenant]

....and the money is being wasted on war and other stupid crap.

And Halo/ =P

[Pieter Enis]

If we'd just agree that, for research and innovation, no money would be required. We'd have our jetpacks, we'd have Mars bases, we'd run cars on water (or sugar :p) and much, much more!
...
I actually thought it could happen just then *rofl*

[Aliotroph?]

We'd also have deathly thin scientists and pissed-off fabrication plant owners. :p

[Doom_Dude]

Are we there yet?

[Pieter Enis]

No, not quite. You'll just have to wait a few more years ... millennia ... ahhh, forget about our race already ;D

Seriously, by now, we shouldn't be selling cars that run on Oil anymore.
(In case you're wondering, this is On-Topic because it has to do with how stupid this whole Economy shows to be. By not inventing new cars that run on water or some other fuel, we're also not inventing new spacecraft, our long-overdue personal jetpacks, teleporters, VR games and whatnot)