/sci/ - Science & Math

>The faster something moves the more friction it creates.

Umm no, you have to interact with other particles to have friction. You can shoot shit down accelerators at .999c and I garendamT that the energy it takes to move the particles is not being expended because of the friction they have with other particles.

>>3302919
Yes youtube video of old guy whining with sappy music is good modern science bro.

Also space is a vacuum, there will be a very small amount of extreemly rapid gas come out of the bomb itself but the vast majority will be radiative energy spanning the em field from low rf to gamma plus alpha and beta. Your wikilink about the metal plate was in an atmosphere where there was an excess of super heated gas to push on it. Which really is quite different. On top of that some experts think the plate was vaporized.

On Orion you could line your plate with water which would super heat and solve your gas problem but this would add a considerable mass cost and if your goal is .1c it really could be killer. I still question the abliaty of the plate to hold up and the shock absorption to function in the speeds required. That's a lot of mass you need to move very fast it just seems indefeasible to me. I'm not usually that scared of radiation but lighting fucking nuclear bombs under you ass... are you mad?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PRNfAAYhT8

Vasimr is not the most efficient electric rocket when looking at newtons per joule or when you look at isp but all the other electric engines I know of have some interactions with parts of the engine and high volovity particles and those parts ware out quicly. Vasimr uses a magnetic nozzle and is designed to have almost no interaction with the particles so it can be made to theoretically never wear out, making it the only decent high velocity engine I know of that can run for hundreds of years.

Why cant we have nice things?

Building it in orbit from components both from the moon and earth is the optimum way. On the moon there is no are and no air resistance so you can build a linear accelerator to shoot stuff into orbit 100x easer than a space elevator. All the metal structure, solar arrays and oxygen should come from the moon because resources are abundant and the cost to orbit can be made very low.

Lithium, it has the highest specific heat capacity of any element except hydrogen. And its like a gagillion times more dense and a solid at room temperature and has a melting point at 180° so it makes for an excellent thermal battery.


It is the only element I know of that is both a fissile and fusion fuel. (might enplane why there is so little of it in the universe) btw it is a key fuel in fusion bombs which don't run of hydrogen they run off lithium hydride

Lithium + fluorine is the most energy dense practice rocket fuel mostly because lithiums relatively low melting point. It's isp is 542s compared to HH+O thats only 450s and lithium is like a million times more dense.
As humanity spreads to the stars I foresee lithium being one of the precious metals most sought after.

I can scrape some of my skin off, apply some magic in a chemical bath and turn them into pluripotent stem cells from those cells I can form a zygote and another human. So is allowing my scraped skin to die also abortion?