It'd be an interesting concept, for someone to develop not 'warp drive' or other reactive means of propulsion... but a 'frame brake'.
A device, as it were, that brakes itself in it's universal positional frame.
Basically you'd wait until the earth's rotation had you on the trailing side (also accounting for the sun and galaxy's movement in free space) and hit the brakes. Your vehicle would simply, suddenly, appear to leap off the surface of the planet and hurtle into deep space at frightening speed and acceleration. In actuality... you've slowed down incredibly.
Everyone forgets to reference that we're zooming around in interlocking circles at incomprehensible speeds...
A) There ain't one. Universal stable from o' ref, that is.
B) If there was, it'd suffer the "gravty screen" problem: you can't step onto it, as it takes the same force as gettin' far enough way from the said mass from which is it to screen you to not be affected by its pull.
C) But it is still kewl and may be fictionable with the right sort of handwaving.
Yup, Bobby, your point B was the problem with Cavorite. Energy difference, and all.
I prefer the Broussard Drive, invented by a brain-damaged autistic coon-ass genius, as expounded in the John Varley novels.
A rocket with an infinite mass ratio is a very cool thing. It can also lead to dangerous lunatics accelerating big chunks of rock to relativistic velocities.
Jenny: 1 and 2: Chesley Bonestell. He's dreamy. (I have most if not all the Collier's-inspired, Bonesetell-illustrated books -- Conquest of Space, the Moon, Mars).
3: Only about half. von Braun and Co. came to the States hoping they'd get the keys to a whole new Peenemunde and instead got stashed on an obscure Amy base in Texas for over a year, then most of 'em ended up at an underfunded Army project in Hunstville.
Despite eventual success, budget issues and internal rivalry dogged 'em ever after, politics even more so. (The best recent example being the way manufacture of the Shuttle was spread out over key districts, coast-to-coast while engineering concerns were downplayed throughout the design process).
So -- no space wheel. No quick-turnaround shuttles. No permanent base on the Moon.
Now, that's cool.
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of this, so count me impressed with the determination.
wv: logon Really.
"If rockets could be fueled by stubbornness... "
ReplyDeleteIf you could fuel rockets with stupid, interstellar travel would be cheaper than a grocery run on a moped.
"God Schmod, I want my monkey man!"--Bart Simpson
ReplyDeletePity, we seem to have lost the will to do such things. :(
If rockets could be fueled by stubborness, I could be halfway to Neptune and back by now.
ReplyDelete--AOA
Pffft, silly girl, engines are fueled with Hope and Change and lubed with unicorn piss.
ReplyDeleteShootin' Buddy
Hmmm....thought I was the only one watching and waiting for this film to be released.
ReplyDeleteOh, well....
Sounds like someone has been reading Bobbi's stuff.
ReplyDeleteIt'd be an interesting concept, for someone to develop not 'warp drive' or other reactive means of propulsion... but a 'frame brake'.
ReplyDeleteA device, as it were, that brakes itself in it's universal positional frame.
Basically you'd wait until the earth's rotation had you on the trailing side (also accounting for the sun and galaxy's movement in free space) and hit the brakes. Your vehicle would simply, suddenly, appear to leap off the surface of the planet and hurtle into deep space at frightening speed and acceleration. In actuality... you've slowed down incredibly.
Everyone forgets to reference that we're zooming around in interlocking circles at incomprehensible speeds...
A) There ain't one. Universal stable from o' ref, that is.
ReplyDeleteB) If there was, it'd suffer the "gravty screen" problem: you can't step onto it, as it takes the same force as gettin' far enough way from the said mass from which is it to screen you to not be affected by its pull.
C) But it is still kewl and may be fictionable with the right sort of handwaving.
I've never heard of this, but now that I have, I'm all depressed.
ReplyDeleteYup, Bobby, your point B was the problem with Cavorite. Energy difference, and all.
ReplyDeleteI prefer the Broussard Drive, invented by a brain-damaged autistic coon-ass genius, as expounded in the John Varley novels.
A rocket with an infinite mass ratio is a very cool thing. It can also lead to dangerous lunatics accelerating big chunks of rock to relativistic velocities.
1. looks AWESOME.
ReplyDelete2. Real Artists Ship.
3. Am I wrong in thinking LBJ killed this future?
Jenny: 1 and 2: Chesley Bonestell. He's dreamy. (I have most if not all the Collier's-inspired, Bonesetell-illustrated books -- Conquest of Space, the Moon, Mars).
ReplyDelete3: Only about half. von Braun and Co. came to the States hoping they'd get the keys to a whole new Peenemunde and instead got stashed on an obscure Amy base in Texas for over a year, then most of 'em ended up at an underfunded Army project in Hunstville.
Despite eventual success, budget issues and internal rivalry dogged 'em ever after, politics even more so. (The best recent example being the way manufacture of the Shuttle was spread out over key districts, coast-to-coast while engineering concerns were downplayed throughout the design process).
So -- no space wheel. No quick-turnaround shuttles. No permanent base on the Moon.
Not yet.