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/sci/ - Science & Math

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2470600 No.2470600 [Reply] [Original]

Sup /sci/?

I just watched the movie 'Sunshine'. I'm wondering if the design of the ship is even possible. If you haven't seen it I recommend it I really enjoyed the movie.

But the ship has a giant shield on the front that seems to be covered in gold. Apparently it reflects the solar energy away from the ship so it can approach the sun...

So yea, is this even possible? I'm pretty much a physics noob.

pic related, best one i could find

>> No.2470604

Everything in that movie is completely true, without exception.

>> No.2470626
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2470626

>>2470604

So I take it that's a no?

>> No.2470627

>>2470600
Metal transfers heat at an extreme rate so no.

>> No.2470631

If anything in the movie conflicts with reality, reality is wrong.

>> No.2470639

>>2470600

meh...
some facts are true, some are not.
firing a laser at the sun is still the most practical way of alleviating the heat.

>> No.2470640

Ok. So the ship from Sunshine isn't feasible.

Would there be a way that we could approach the sun with a spacecraft? Like, say...get within Mercury's orbit?

>> No.2470659

>>2470640

yes, like i said. lasers.
if your interested in that read sundiver (scifi, but based on pretty good science and any ship going into the sun is fucking speculative.)

>> No.2470660

>>2470640
I suppose you could stay in mercury's shade.

>> No.2470667
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2470667

OP, gold is actually very heavy. The moon missions had gold foil, but it was actually aluminized mylar, for it reflects light better and is very lightweight. I assume this ship had the same, and whatever heat was absorbed (At Mercury orbit it's 14,5 kilowatts per square meter) could be pumped to heat radiators... Which are nowhere to be seen, but in reality would be large, dull-red things on the disk's underside.

Pic related.

>> No.2470690

>>2470667

Interesting. So you're saying that the spacecraft in Avatar was more scientifically sound than the one in a pretty much purely science movie...

Nice one James Cameron.

>>2470659

Sundiver? I've been reading some scifi lately. I just started The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. I like Heinlein's writing styles.

Any other scifi books I should be aware of?

>> No.2470693

>>2470600
OP, I've never watched the movie, but it is entirely possible to have a ship that reflects the majority of solar radiation that hits it, and then re-radiate what's left.

>> No.2470696

>>2470690
Vernor Vinge stuff.

>> No.2470697

>>2470640
We've send a probe called MESSENGER to fly around mercury. It will reach orbit in march.

>> No.2470699

>>2470640
Yes, the Thermos corporation has been hiding the technology for decades but travel to the sun in an advanced thermal regulation device is possible and has been attempted by the soviets.

>> No.2470700

>>2470690

>Interesting. So you're saying that the spacecraft in Avatar was more scientifically sound than the one in a pretty much purely science movie...

Probably the most scientifically accurate, since the Discovery from 2001 didn't even have heat radiators...

The rest of the movie was just as bad as your average "hurr durr humanoid aliens and earth-like planets and space pirates and FTL" shit. The vehicles and the human tech were proper.

>> No.2470707

has this thread never heard of thermoelectrics?

here's a dumbfuck cd, go buy a clue, avatar is not more anything but faggotry than sunshine

>> No.2470712

>>2470700

Yea I hated the story I was just impressed with the computer generated stuff.

I'd like to see someone do something similar but with an Aliens/Starship Troopers style remake. Quatrich was the fucking man. I'm waiting for Avatar II to come out where the Terrans come back and shit on blue fucks.

>> No.2470718

>>2470707

It was a discussion about ship designs bro. We all know Avatar was a steaming pile of shit.

>> No.2470735
File: 572 KB, 1934x1088, 1291246966971.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
2470735

>>2470712

I'm just waiting for Cameron to stop being a greedy fuck. He should've stuck to the original script, it would've made the movie better, but the budget would've destabilized the world's economy.

Pic is the Venturestar accelerating away.

>> No.2470743

>>2470700
>thinks pandora was a planet
>thinks there were space pirates
>thinks FTL was in Avatar at all

>is completely retarded

>> No.2470752

>>2470743

Not sure if serious. I know all that, I was just saying that the rest of the movie, in scientific accuracy, was equivalent to the usual soft-sci-fi movie/book where there's FTL and earth-like *worlds* and such.

>> No.2470753

>>2470690

>Sundiver

it's the first (and probably the weakest) in the uplift series.

it's based in a universe were every species has been uplifted from animal to sentient by a different species, all going back to a mythical race called the "progenitors".

it's actually very cool and doesn't really do the normal stuff most scifi book do so it's a nice change of pace.
the guy writing it is the guy that made echo the dolphin, if that means anything to you (sega genesis game, pretty awesome).

anyway in sun diver we have ships that can go to the surface of the sun but converting the heat and radiation into power and using that power to fire an incredibly powerful laser at the sun.

the lasers then cools down the entire fucking ship, it's hard to follow but i checked around and it could work.

>> No.2470755

>>2470743

How far away was Pandora supposed to be?

Without FTL travel wtf were they doing even trying to send shit back to Earth? Isn't the NEAREST earth-like planet like thousands of years away at conventional speeds?

>> No.2470765

>>2470753

oh shit, echo the dolphin, that shit blew my mind, must get this book

>> No.2470773

>>2470755

actually i think it's less the a few hundred years.
and for them it would look like lees beacuse they are traveling next to light speed.

>> No.2470775

>>2470755

It's in Alpha Centauri, so that's four and a half light years away. Project Valkyrie can go up to 92% of c with an acceleration of 1 g, so it's six years of objective time and three or four of subjective time (Time as seen from the ship's POV)

>> No.2470784

>>2470775

>92% of c

Pretty fast. Where are you getting this info? Was there a book this story was based on?

>> No.2470787

>>2470752
so out of everything you listed that wasn't either metaphorical, nonsensical or flat out incorrect, your remaining complaints with the movie are its use of humanoid aliens and earth-like planets?

Well, first of all, theres nothing whatsoever to keep an earth-like planet from forming. Our solar system has had two earth like planets in its short life time (mars and earth, to clarify). So this complaint about earth-like planets is rather silly.

As for the humanoid aliens, yes that part is stupid. Its stupid for a variety of reasons, of which the primary complaint is that humanoid body shape is very, very unlikely to naturally occur in another solar system. Also, the six-limbed life forms should not give rise to intelligent, four limbed creatures. Evolutionarily, its virtually impossible for the Na'vi to look the way they do.

But because its a movie pursuing emotional connections with the audience, I can afford to let it go and allow for a suspension of disbelief. I don't see why everyone wants their sci-fi to be so strict and hard and documentary-like. Whats wrong with a little imagination? goddamn

>> No.2470803

>>2470784
>>2470784
http://www.amazon.com/Avatar-Confidential-Biological-History-Camerons/dp/0061896756/ref=sr_1_1?s=boo
ks&ie=UTF8&qid=1296784372&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Guide-Avatar-Camerons-Unauthorized/dp/0953317250/ref=sr_1_8?s=books&a
mp;ie=UTF8&qid=1296784372&sr=1-8

>> No.2470816

>>2470784

Just

http://www.charlespellegrino.com/propulsion.htm

And the afterword of Pellegrino's book, Flying to Valhalla.

>> No.2470822

>>2470803

Eh....thanks but no thanks. Not really interested in reading a text version of behind the scenes...thought there was like an actual literary work that the book was based on.

/sci/ducks have any good scifi reading for a relative scifi noob? Nothing crazy deep. For example I said I just started The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, and I like it a lot.

C'mon guys I want to get my scifi on.