(fwd) Where Do We Go From Here?

baDBob · 2003-10-13T23:50:10+00:00

I found this article on Thought ya'll might likeit. While I don't agree with everything, he has some interestingpoints.BobWHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?*By L. Neil Smith For Immediate and General Release The October, 2003 issue of _Discover_ contains one of the saddestletters I've ever read. Gil Bell, of Duluth, Georgia, writes " ... onewould have to conclude that travel out of our solar system isimpossible. The fusion, fission, and antimatter engines require toomuch fuel ... The laser sail is doomed by the fact that building a6,600-mile-wide collecting mirror is simply not feasible, and ... a600-mile-wide sail would be torn apart by cosmic debris on a dailybasis. And why build a fusion ramjet when there's no fuel in space torun it, and its design would not allow it to attain the speed itneeds? "The fusion or fission engine concepts would be useful in gettingaround out own solar system, but what's the use in traveling to otherplanets in our neighborhood? Venus will never be inhabitable andneither will Mars or any of the Jovian planets or their moons, andchanging the environment on another planet will never be within ourcapabilities. It is fun to speculate on way that humans mightaccomplish interstellar travel, but in the end it is just more sciencefiction." There are lot of unsupported assertions in Mr. Bell's letter, anda great many factual errors (most of them, I'm afraid, based on anincredible ignorance of history), but the saddest thing about it isits spirit of defeat. As I said in a recent essay, Americans seem tohave given up on the future. This letter from _Discover_ is typicaland symptomatic. But it doesn't speak for everyone. I've been reading the works of Robert A. Heinlein (as the Britssay, "man and boy") for forty-six years, having found his books when Iwas sent to the school library to spend several afternoons there as apunishment. After all these years, I don't recall what for, more's thepity. In all that time (and earlier, in...

B

BrundlFly 22 years ago

snipped-for-privacy@aol.com (RayDunakin) wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@mb-m16.aol.com:

I believe this is a rather obscure reference to gravity drive.

I have seen evidence that this technology exists but tend not to bring up the subject publicly unless it is in an anonymous medium such as this. The credibility of a person tends to be diminished when you state that, "one time I saw this UFO." The fact is that I know what I know, and I know what I saw, and you can read this and believe what you want. What I saw had the ability to warp light around it, red on top and blue on the bottom and traveled in the air much the way you would expect a helicopter to without any sound. I find it HIGHLY unlikely that it was an extra- terrestrial, and in fact from what I could see through the sphere of optical distortion around this craft, it looked very much to be man made. I have no proof other than the memory, and I highly doubt that even if I had the opportunity to take a picture or film this "UFO" that anyone would believe me, especially living in our age of digital manipulation.

It has been my thought that there ARE technologies available that would bring space to the general public and maybe even fix the current "energy crisis" with little problem other than the fact the balance of power in the world would be upset. Possibly this technology could easily be integrated into weapons technology. It is also a possibility that the technology is "to dangerous," but I find it more likely the facts are not available to us because our lives revolve around the almighty dollar, and not what would be best for humanity.

At any rate this is leading far away from the Newtonian science that is the general topic here.

Vote

K

Kurt Kesler 22 years ago

What?!? Just what about flight was understood? People in the dark ages walking about discussing lift concepts? Bring out your dead and, oh BTW, is that a laminar flow airfoil you have carved out of stone over there?

I give up, Ray. You win.

Vote

B

BB 22 years ago

Perhaps it was something as simple as, "hey - birds can fly, therefore heavier-than-air flight must be possible.... it's just a matter of figuring out the engineering so that humans can do it, too."

OTOH, I've yet to witness any natural phenomenon whereby certain animal species travel faster than light, or travel through time, or warp space to travel interstellar distances in hours.

Vote

D

Doug Sams 22 years ago

I thought Monty Python proved that birds aren't heavier than air...

Doug

Vote

B

BB 22 years ago

No, they merely proved that the earth was banana-shaped, and that coconuts were non-migratory.

Ni!

Vote

J

Jerry Irvine 22 years ago

You just cannot see it silly boy.

Jerry

Vote

J

Jerry Irvine 22 years ago

Theoretically perfect propulsion.

Jerry.

Vote

H

hiltyt 22 years ago

On Tue, 14 Oct 2003 23:40:10 GMT, snipped-for-privacy@NOSPAM.rogers.com (Len Lekx) wrote:

Just a head-lice nymph here.. Uh, it was Hero. Archimedes dabbled, but it was really Hero.

From:

formatting link

"The discovery of the steam-engine.

Although there are indications that Archimedes and Philo made some simple use of steam, the discovery of the steam engine definitely belongs to Hero. In the history of mechanics, the rotating device invented by Hero is known as an aeolipile or steam sphere or wind ball. The principle was very simple: a large sealed cauldron of water was placed over a source of heat. As the water boiled, steam rose into two pipes, between which was pivoted a sphere. Jets of steam escaped from the sphere through two L-shaped outlets, sending it spinning around at great speed. This remarkable device was used in many different mechanisms and constructions, but was never developed to the point where it became as important a discovery as Papin's steam-powered piston in 1681. This was largely because the power of steam was considered a paradoxical phenomenon and not a dynamic state. Nonetheless, the repeated discovery of the power of steam, from Leonardo da Vinci with his 'architron', a steam cannon based on an invention of Archimedes, to Papin and his pressure cooker, owe much to the ancient Greek mechanical engineers: Archimedes, Philo (who invented a steam siren for lighthouses) and Hero, not to mention Philomenes, who in 250 BC built a steam pressure vessel very like that of Papin, although without the latter's safety valve. Papin corresponded with Leibnitz, who had translated Hero's work on pneumatics, in which he describes his aeolipile. This is just one more indication of the Greek contribution to the discovery of the steam engine."

Tod "Where have all our Heroes gone!?" Hilty

Vote

J

Jerry Irvine 22 years ago

I observed something similar once but the colors were different. Maybe because it was just taking off and near all the ground support equipment.

A large amount of government reasearch is in black programs and this certainly would be a black program.

Which was precisely the point.

Jerry

Vote

H

hiltyt 22 years ago

Oh, I get it...

"Go ask Alice.. when she's 10 feet tall", kinda thing, eh?

tah

Vote

D

Doug Sams 22 years ago

Didn't Philo work on TV's at Ford?

Doug So, has the Chinese astronaut returned yet? Is the recovery supposed to be wet or dry?

.

Vote

H

hiltyt 22 years ago

No, Philo was on "Gunsmoke", you're thinking of Phestus..

Um, wait, um..

6PM EDT Wednesday, which is 6AM Thursday over thar...

tah

Vote

A

Alan Jones 22 years ago

I do indeed travel though time, naturaly at a constant rate. Large quantities of matter are known to warp space. It is a matter of conjecture what happens inside a black hole.

Vote

J

Jerry Irvine 22 years ago

You know you are a geek when you have three sizes of range boxes, one of which is either in a pocket, positioned as a pocket protector, or as a holster.

Jerry

Vote

B

Bob Kaplow 22 years ago

OK, it's not JUST for NARAM, but it's the big (59.6 liter) one I take on road trips, rather than the small (4.2 liter) one I use at local NIRA launches, or the tiny (0.28 liter) box that fits in my pocket.