Four Incredible Ways We Could Travel the Stars

[@csdn4483]

@Simon - DRACO is not using nuclear pulse propulsion, it's using the same principles behind NERVA, the follow on to Orion, but without the detonation of nuclear bombs. There's two options, using hydrogen gas too cool the nuclear reactor/act as a moderator and then use the heated hydrogen gas to use as trust or use the hydrogen gas in a loop to power the ship's systems along with creating an ion drive (using the power to run the ion engine). DRACO will be a lot more safe than nuclear pulse propulsion and it's expected that the thrust that a DRACO/NERVA type engine can get us to Mars in about a month (two month round trip) which is a lot quicker than the year to year and half trip now to get to Mars (not counting the return trip).

[@sleepingbee101]

These youtubers aren't concise with their information it's true, Draco and nerva don't use pulse. Simon does crazy things sometimes

[@ignitionfrn2223]

2:20 - Chapter 1 - Solar sails 6:30 - Chapter 2 - Nuclear pulse propulsion 9:30 - Chapter 3 - Antimatter rockets 13:15 - Chapter 4 - Alcubierre warp drive 15:35 - Wrap up

[@burningbarnavit]

Is this for meth-addled viewers that can't watch a full video without losing it and going "Full-On Lauren Boebert"?

[@tastierjungle4645]

I can smell you

[@BigZebraCom]

that you for doing this. Heads up, the time stamp for chapter 4 should be about @13:10

[@User-jr7vf]

Simon or whoever manages these channels should put in timestamps in the videos. Thank you for doing the work.

[@burningbarnavit]

Seriously though, other than displaying serious Main Character Syndrome, what is the point of time stamps? He made the whole video, so watch the video. Want the h3ll would Simon help you skip through the video? His income depends on views, and just as important, average length of time people watched the video. If you skip through, you screw the creator. Then there won't even be videos whatsoever, and you will have to find another way to feel important...

[@scott2100]

Draco isn't nuclear pulse, it is nuclear thermal, where some kind of nuclear reactor is heating a fuel

[@pseudotasuki]

Yeah. The US even built and tested this type of engine back in the 60s and 70s.

[@wtfpwnz0red]

If KSP taught me anything, it's that mustering the propulsion to get somewhere is only half the battle. Once you get your giant mass up to cruising speed and get to your destination, you've got to dump a bunch more energy into slowing that mass back down.

[@The1stDukeDroklar]

You also must worry about hitting dust and if there's a human crew, the interstellar radiation.

[@Im-Not-a-Dog]

Simon surfing a rocket needs to become a screen saver. Just Fact-Boi on his rocket bouncing around the screen like the DVD logo.

[@billmilosz]

You got it wrong, Simon. DARPA's DRACO is **NOT** a nuclear pulse propulsion project. It is a nuclear THERMAL project. The difference is the difference between a reactor used in a power plant and Hiroshima. Your writer / researcher got that wrong.

[@matthewluecke3704]

I'll be in my 80s or 90s, but your darn right I plan on living to see the results of Breakthrough Starshot.

[@rumbly3956]

I don’t think DRACO is a nuclear pulse engine. I’m pretty sure it’s nuclear thermal, but I might be wrong.

[@rayoflight62]

We haven't even begun to understand the true nature of the fabric of Space. We don't have yet an all-encompassing, final theory of the structure of empty Space. We are limited by two old incompatible theories, Relativity and Quantum, with a hard speed limit which seems incompatible with the size of the Universe. Until we refine our theoretical understanding of Space, any project of travelling the Galaxy and beyond, makes little sense. Thank you Simon for your great analysis of the matter. Greetings, Anthony

[@itsjwall]

Well said👍🏻

[@aflacduck2]

When you think about it, it's actually worth sending out earlier craft just to hold future supplies for that later mission. Also there's value in clearing some of the early path the first time with something other than a manned crew.

[@ThaGr1m]

But the earlier flights wil take even longer if they take on extra weight, not to mention that if supply is an issue there is nothing to stop multiple ships from being launched at regular intervals. Also the issue with the earlier ship is waisting decades of peoples lives for their effort to mean less than nothing

[@balinthehater8205]

​@@ThaGr1msend basic supplies that might be needed in the first, automated, ship with orders to hold in orbit. If technology improves you can send the manned mission with the expectation that they get a resupply drop a few years or decades in. If tech doesn't improve you can just send the followup manned mission with the same tech to link up with the supplies already on site

[@aflacduck2]

@@balinthehater8205 This was where I was going with it. Even if it's just monitoring equipment too, any resource ahead, even if it's only the first half, is better than nothing.

[@keithscommunityanddomestic9513]

Also, it would be fun.

[@balinthehater8205]

@@aflacduck2 i understood what you meant, and it's pretty valid logic imo. Was just explaining it out for the other guy.

[@theshadowduke]

Draco isn't a NPR it's a NTR, very big difference.

[@Turd_Fergus0n]

The ultimate propulsion system would be giving Simon a few hundred tons of cocaine and a few hundred gallons of Coca-Cola and put him on a giant hamster wheel🤣

[@gregbay2613]

Interesting. 99% of the speed of light is my projection.

[@justinwebb8831]

Remedial humor

[@Jaysin412]

​​@@justinwebb8831rotational humor. That's something that'll go around and around and around forever

[@wtfpwnz0red]

Just figure out original recipe Coca-Cola and kill two birds with one stone

[@Jaysin412]

@@wtfpwnz0red yes

[@saiynoq6745]

I like the warp bubble idea. I have my own idea back in high school did a paper on it. Talked about using gravity fields to move like a rock skipping off water or like trying to squeeze a ball in your hand covered in butter or something like that. You would use gravity to push an pull you too other wells of gravity. You wouldn’t be able to change direction mid shot between wells of gravity and the technique of the process would change drastically depending on how sensitive or strong we could make our own gravity field.

[@MusicalRaichu]

Decelerating at the destination is not the only problem with high speed. There's collision with dust along the way. A bullet traveling at 1 km/s does a lot of damage. Traveling at 1/3 the speed of light 100,000 km/s, a collision with something 1/1000 mass of a bullet will do 100 times the damage.

[@Lodrik18]

I think the estimate is more then 2/3 the speed of light and spacedust becomes a real problem (micro-particles)...

[@cynthiaherbst3909]

And assuming you make the ability to shield the craft traveling at said speeds, you need to fund a way to prevent a buildup of those energized particles because if you end up slowing down rapidly let's say, those particles will shotgun blast forward and kill any organic matter in their arc.

[@MusicalRaichu]

@@nigelnewcombe8541 I was thinking of the momentum imparted by a collision, so how much an impact will distort the vehicle. if some of the energy is converted to heat, then you're right, i hadn't thought that the energy would be that much worse. these are newtonian calculations. when talking about relativistic speeds, i've no recollection what the correct formulas would be.

[@Rose_Harmonic]

According to the research, the interstellar medium is made of particles so much smaller than bullets that you would only need a couple millimeters of a metal shield to protect you adequately between here and Alpha Centauri.

[@MusicalRaichu]

@@Rose_Harmonic well that's good news for future intrepid explorers.

[@casbot71]

Another option is to send a slower unmanned ship, and have it grow the crew at the destination.

[@hansfreivogel2419]

The NASA/DARPA nuclear test rocket is NOT propelled by means of a nuclear pulse engine but rather a nuclear reactor. The reactor would be used to heat a propellant such as H2 that would then exit the rocket at very high speed and thus accelerate the vehicle. There are no nuclear explosions needed. The mechanism is closer related to the 1960s reactors NERVA and also KIWI, which were testbeds for this type of technology.

[@greasee.monkey7224]

Thank you Simon, for yet another channel to be hooked on, and this is my first video. Already subbed and about to binge.👍👍

[@PaulValickas]

Proxima centauri pronunciation is just strange. Can we please go back to ‘ee’ at the end?

[@sandybottom6623]

Gravity is the repulsive force between space time - the 'ether' - and mass. Electromagnetic waves are ripples in space time - ie essentially variations in gravitational strength, size of space and rate of change of time. EM waves go left & right \ up & down. Light goes in & out. The closer space time is together the slower time goes and the smaller the spatial dimensions are. A gradient in space time produces a gravitational force. Mass displaces space time thus creating a gradient that produces gravity. The rate of change of time is the common variable - controllable factor. Run with that.

[@phantomechelon3628]

Never mind that Mr LaForge...just get the damn warp reactor back online!

[@reptoid3866]

To me it seems a bit pointless to leave the solar system until we figure out how to live anywhere in it. We can barely self sustain here on the very planet we evolved on without destroying the ecosystem. I'd rather see the solar system fill up with Orbital Rings and O'Neal Cylinders first and us move our heavy industry into space.

[@Vastin]

Yeah, this is a much more realistic future. Also quite difficult, but vastly easier than interstellar travel.

[@Lodrik18]

We ARE destroying the ecosystem and depleting the natural resources...

[@garmrbanalras2579]

Just 125 years until the predicted finding of protean ruins on mars. At which point we discover mass effect field technology and the Charon relay. Just about as likely as the warp drive imo.

[@willw6504]

As much as I'd love interstellar travel, I think we should master traveling within our own solar system first. Mars, the asteroid belt, and various moons of Jupiter and Saturn could all provide resources or possibly livable habitats (with some serious work) that would be usable by more people while we work on better longer range solutions.

[@tobiasmyers3505]

These are happening simultaneously. Asteroid exploration and mining plans are underway and will allow the ability to manufacture large spacecraft and other things in orbit robotically, negating the liftoff mass costs.

[@scottpayne4756]

If anti-matter was produced by a fusion powered plant providing power to a particle accellerator then suddenly the step ladder to pure clean energy is complete, in that era of energy use.

[@Lodrik18]

But nothing happens to radioactive materials if you drop the container or anything, the smallest mistake with antimatter and you have the mother of all explosions. You need ONE mistake at ANY point and something is somewhere going to happen at some point over long periodes of time (nuclear (di)fusion is this critical only in the reactor and we all know that track record)

[@jkmil4981]

If you accelerate at a rate that is safe for the crew, you have decelerate at the same rate to arrive at your destination. This means you have to start breaking at the halfway point in your journey, and the ship would only be moving at its maximum speed for a few moments at the midpoint of the journey. There is math to graph the curve of acceleration/deceleration and what that would mean for the trip time, but it would take me longer than that travel time to do the math myself.

[@valuebasedbusinessbyanders3709]

That assumes unlimited fuel - normally a show-stopper. You can spin for artificial gravity while coasting of course.

[@MichaelEilers]

@@valuebasedbusinessbyanders3709 theres bi of course for gravity simulation by spin- it’s never been tried. We all assume it would be OK. Hr I bet as with VR there would be a good chunk of people who could not tolerate it.

[@valuebasedbusinessbyanders3709]

@@MichaelEilers Your comment was a bit unclear ('bi' ?) but there has been much testing done on how well people can take spin, 1-2 rpm is ok for everybody, and tolerance builds up quickly (in hours ) to 10 rpm - this limits the g-force if you have constraints on size, and IF you want 1 g then size has to be larger. But in space, size isn't so much of an issue (mass can be of course) - a 1 g force could be achieved with a 12 metre (diameter) ring spinning at 2 rpm, and with a 4.5 metre ring at 10 rpm (if my quick calculations are correct)

[@MichaelEilers]

@@valuebasedbusinessbyanders3709 it hasn’t been tested in actual microgravity, in space, so we still have no idea. As seen with the astronauts to the ISS, each responds differently biologically to their first few weeks in space and some are never comfortable the entire time they are there. The same way that using a VR headset might be great for hours for one person and have another feeling seasick for hours even after the headset is off. I’m not saying it’s not worth trying, but the assumption that fake gravity is a solved issue is not the case. I was hoping that the Chinese station would try it out but building a structure the size you are discussing is currently way beyond the capability of any nation or private company.

[@valuebasedbusinessbyanders3709]

@@MichaelEilers www.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/2206107/afrl-centrifuge-part-of-nasas-history-making-launch/ and www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/m1_shortarmhumancentrifuge_updated.pdf this these links (two of many) show there have been, for a long time, facilities to test circular motion on humans, I suspect any long-distance space travel is a long way off and no doubt they will test this well before then. But just as microgravity has never caused more than POSSIBLY a bit of discomfort in astronauts, artificial (rotation) gravity is unlikely to be a show-stopper, there are probably other things that are more difficult to overcome (boredom?). Tests on Earth in selection processes can select for tolerance for artificial gravity. You can of course always imagine that SOME people will react adversely to one of a MULTITUDE of things, not everyone is fit to go into space. Then they shouldn't don't go.

[@DrizztDuUrden-sg3zq]

What about instead of a physical form of propulsion we look into the idea of projecting our consciousness. I don't presume to understand what the science behind this would entail, but it's something I've often wondered about.

[@darkgalaxy5548]

Consciousness travels approx 17 miles per hour, much slower than the speed of light.

[@krisgonynor689]

If we came up with an easier way to make antimatter, just leaving the problem of the enormous amounts of energy required to do so being the major problem, we could overcome that issue by putting the antimatter manufacturing center in close solar orbit and using the large amounts of solar energy to be found there. Since we are only talking about shipping tons, and not tens of thousands of tons of material from the station, it would be cheaper and easier to do. We could even mine Mercury to both build the station and it's massive solar generator and for the material needed for the conversion process. Totally automating the process would make is safe, as being that close to the sun would be dangerous for people. Plus just handling antimatter in general is best left to automated processes. Building such a plant on the Earth or the Moon would be incredibly dangerous, we wouldn't want ton's of antimatter around the planet, in case of an accident or a terrorist attack on the plant. We could even build the ships in Earth orbit, send them to the station to be fueled, then have them swing by the Earth and pick up the majority of the crew before heading off into space. Of course, knowing humans, we would blow up the planet if we ever could easily make antimatter in such a manner.

[@pseudotasuki]

You're completely wrong about DRACO. That isn't a nuclear pulse rocket, it's a nuclear thermal rocket. In short: a rocket engine that operates by heating propellants using a nuclear reactor.

[@Seraphim401]

WTF! Another channel? At this point this guy needs prove his humanity in front of the UN.

[@Metallic-Sun]

I find it hilarious that anyone thinks we will survive long enough to even colonize another planet in our own solar system much less think we could travel somewhere else in the galaxy.

[@ButWhyWasTaken]

1:14 I love how Factboi is literally preaching science.

[@NickSteffen]

Uh, the DRACO project has nothing to do with detonating nukes in space. That is completely wrong and sounds like it was scraped off some anti nuclear fear mongers manifesto scree. It doesn’t use nuclear pulse propulsion it is a nuclear thermal rocket. It uses a nuclear reaction (like a power plant) to generate heat which it uses to heat gasses that are pushed out of the back of the rocket(like a chemical rocket). It’s actually a fairly promising looking project for the shorter distances of mars trips about three times as fast chemical rockets.

[@georgbrindlinger1008]

I dig your style..

[@brianpembrook9164]

4:10 the best part of solar sails is you don't "accelerate" in the conventional sense. Just keep the sails open. It might take a couple years to really get going but it isn't going to stop. Eventually we will hit diminishing returns as we move away from the sun but that might take decades. And stopping might be easy. Can a solar sail be folded up after use? No one has said but if it can you can easily fold up and use more conventional methods to slow down. I can see it as cheap inter system travel.

[@wtfpwnz0red]

They fixed the math on the Alcubierre drive! A few times actually. At first they made some refinements that removed the need for negative energy, but it would have required the mass energy equivalent of the entire known universe. So it went from "possible only on paper if we invent new rules" to "possible on paper." There have been multiple refinements since then too. Last i heard, they got it down to needing the mass energy equivalent of Jupiter. Still not realistic in the slightest, but at least we're in the solar system. Of course that also ignores the fact that someone would have to invent the machinery that does this fancy space bending trick, and that's its own hurdle that afaik nobody has solved yet.

[@krisgonynor689]

Laser light sails: we could put a atomic power plant on the ship to power the lasers, so the ship would carry the lasers on board. The much shorter distance to the light sail would mean needing less powerful lasers. Plus we could just turn the ship and light sail around to do a braking maneuver if we wanted to stop somewhere. There is also the possibility of putting the lasers on sun orbiting solar powered platforms. This would eliminate having to use the lasers through our atmosphere, plus we could use them continuously, since we wouldn't need a planet wide network of lasers so that one is always pointed in the right direction. Of course, until the target system is inhabited, and they build another solar powered laser (or bring one with them), we'd need a different form drive to brake to go into orbit of the nearby star or exoplanet.

[@QBCPerdition]

You can't have the laser on the ship. Any propulsion you gain from the photons hitting the sail would be negated by the opposite propulsion of shooting it out in the first place. Equal and opposite reactions and all that.

[@robertmarchand1346]

This was super cool Simon. Thanks...

[@dionroberts6203]

So incredibly interesting! Simon, you truly are the greatest fact boy ever ❤

[@ioanbota9397]

Realy I like this video its so interestyng

[@GadonStarcross]

What about the gravitational slingshots? It's on the title card butt not in the video?

[@stateofmind578]

Simon has more channels than there are stars in the universe 😁

[@alehandroarries6995]

Indeed

[@DeBo-ed2fd]

Simon is the goat

[@southcoastinventors6583]

So basically all we got right now is nuclear or some sort of laser boost which is good for the solar system or sending out long duration probes.

[@0PsychosisMedia0]

Traveling without moving. Granted folding space would need a massive amount of energy. Tho could do small hops..refuel somehow and keep going until we get to the destination.

[@Italianjedi7]

Dr Kipping’s Cool Worlds video disagreed about the Alcubierre warp drive a bit. He absolutely thinks radiation and time dilation would be a problem. Yet you both agreed that getting out of the bubble would be a challenge.

[@brokeandtired]

The energy required for the warp drive would literally microwave all life in the Solar System.

[@Notsogoodguitarguy]

The major problems with the Alcubierre drive, if I remember correctly, are a few, even ignoring the matter needed. First - you can't really steer it. You start the wave and then that's it. Second - you can't really perceive anything outside of the bubble basically in any way. Third, and the biggest problem, if I remember correctly, is that matter kind of gets trapped at the edges of the bubble. And, when you stop, you basically create nuclear explosions at the edges of the bubble, which will kind of annihilate everything that was in it. Another problem is that the Alcubierre drive needs basically more energy than exists in the entire universe to move a small spaceship.

[@EveryoneWhoUsesThisTV]

You mixed up nuclear pulse propulsion with nuclear thermal propulsion! Draco is a NTP rocket, it doesn't set off nukes in space like Project Orion would (which was NPP) Draco is perfectly legal! Two very different ships and propulsion methods! Plus there is no EMP issue with NPP in space, no atmosphere no EMP...

[@AnalystPrime]

There is a great manga series called 2001 Nights and one of the stories is about a seed ship project, a sublight craft sent to another star system with frozen embyros and robots who will thaw and raise them if the ship detects a habitable world to land on. Another story details how explorers find a planet made of antimatter beyond Pluto's orbit. Later that antimatter is used to create artificial black holes. Turns out with micro black holes you can create a hyperdrive... With hyperdrives you can go scout a star system, bring in all the necessary equipment and start terraforming a planet so in a few centuries there will be a habitable world for the ship carrying your great-great-great-granduncles and aunts to find.

[@bobg9922]

Coincidentally the scifi TV series the ARK explores three of these four methods in its show.

[@cloyola8889]

I did some research into Plasma technology. Not much info on it. But it can be used as forcefield technology & as a means of propulsion. #propultionsystems #plasmatechnology

[@spark_coder]

Great video as always... However I was surprised that you didn't mention fusion drives as a part of the nuclear rockets part. Fusion rockets are much more plausible with our current technology to make a clean yet powerful propulsion.

[@valuebasedbusinessbyanders3709]

You cannot get fuel for fusion reactions, there is only 12 kg of Tritium on the whole planet, and VERY limited possibilities to make more onboard.

[@christiancorralejo8726]

Two two or more propulsion systems make a more effective and faster spacecraft? If so which systems would be best to use and in what arrangement?

[@2hcobda2]

2:26 error Wikipedia: Solar sail section: History of concept

[@Maelthras]

I have devised a containment method for holding basically any particle, even antimatter provided some cauveats. But I'm just a self taught kid. But it stems from an idea on how to hold a fissile particle from decaying indefinitely, even well past it's half life. I watched or read something about being able to hold a particle stationary with light so that even the particles normal functions are in stasis while held in the beam. Optohydrodynamic theory of particles in a dual-beam optical trap.

[@aq5426]

Grav drive! ;)

[@will891410]

I can only see so many stranded ships in the future.

[@Jdjsksjdhdj]

could you build a moon base with a bunch of colliders and what if you made the ship massive could that be enough to not worry about radiation from the anti matter. if you put solar sales on it could that help you slow down Mabey and carry speed?

[@MusicalRaichu]

antimatter cannot be contained by magnetic fields if it is electrically neutral. You'd have to ensure that every single atom you create is and remains ionized. No idea how that could be achieved.

[@VampireLestatTheBratPrince]

How am I still finding more Simon videos?!? I thought I’d found them all!!

[@sentientflower7891]

There is in fact an infinite number of Simon videos.

[@SkotiM]

No mention of a gravitational sling shot then?

[@only1muppet]

Our best bet relies on magnetic field manipulation. We need to generate one for deflection of objects in our path and that same field could be redirected/ manipulated to produce propulsion also. Once we figure out how to manipulate gravitational fields we’ll have what we need to at least take field trips to Pluto and back in a day.

[@portfolio91]

Good video, as it explains how far-out and improbable all of these mechanisms are. It would probably take a century to get any of these to work the way we want it, at least. Once the problem of propulsion is solved, we'll be faced with a number of other problems: - how to keep warm in a space that's maybe 5°K (-268°C or -400 something F). All of your heat will radiate out into space, with nowhere to get any more. Current nuclear reactors only last a year or ten before needing to be refueled. - how to get food. Yes, we can take a piece of land with us, with atmosphere and water, but it would have to be HUGE. Biosphere 2 came close, but ran into financial and management problems, partly caused by none other than Steve Bannon. For 7 people, they needed a patch of land equivalent to 8400 square meters, or a square 300 feet on each side. - Maintenence - parts break, and there's no hardware store within a few lightyears. So they need to make their own stuff. - breeding - depending on how long it takes, you'll have to make some babies, and raise them. - politics. OMG.

[@m00kism]

How long until we're on a new channel per vid??

[@benjaminseelking9483]

I have 2 things to comment. First, i think we Humans should focus for a while to build an actual alternative to Rocket/Combustion propelled Craft for Space, just so we can explore our Homesystem with far more freedom. I mean, Mars can be over 20 Lightminutes away, the outer Planets multiple Lighthours, and i atleast want to be able to visit those on my own one Day. Second, i feel we should take cues from the Stargate Franchise. Let us figure out how to build Wormhole Generators, send a Fleet of Ships to the Stars to Place them where we want to go, and Boom, Interstellar Colonization

[@Aurumk1]

You will when I am finished. Work hard so you can get there too!

[@3D_Printing]

0:34 sounds like the same issue as travelling at light soeed😮😮

[@MikhaelHausgeist]

13:40 There are research data from some german scientist(fairly recent one) which prove that Alcubierre warp drive can be built without exotic matter, but still needed hilarious amount of energy... Well it is doable, but only if used all power generating assets on Earth. Which for vehicle are unacceptable.

[@brandonvasser5902]

The reason the final drive is not possible is many fold and there are videos on Cool Worlds channel about it. But the biggest problem seems to be that once you are in it, you can’t interact or control it out of the very principle of the mechanic. And in order for it to exist, it must already exist essentially. As you are unable to interact with such a warp, you can never actually start it either much less stop it.

[@burthurr]

Thanks Simon, good topic. You really don't need the nonsensical numbers/graphics though

[@peanutjones6600]

I still question the ground based light sails. I mean how is the light supposed to reach the sails if they are beyond a light year?

[@starfuryms582]

It should be pointed out, that a nuke detonated outside the atmosphere (or the earth's magnetic field, i forget which one) won't actually produce an emp.

[@johnfranks9271]

NASA are not currently looking at pulsed nuclear propulsion. Nuclear thermal propulsion uses a hot continuously fissioning core which heats a gas most likely hydrogen before passing it through a converging diverging rocket bell shaped nozzle its a continuous process like a chemical rocket but instead of a deflagrating the hydrogen the core heats the gas before its expelled at twice the velocity of a chemical rocket.

[@valuebasedbusinessbyanders3709]

Fun stuff to watch, but there are some misunderstandings and inaccuracies. Chemical rockets - once you have attained escape velocity from the solar system (Like Voyager 1 and 2, Pioneer 1 and 2 and New Horizons space probes) you can coast for a billion years without using ANY fuel, nothing will slow you down. And it is the same for all rockets, no need to accelerate and burn fuel continuously. Warp drive - it is now accepted that since some part of any warp bubble must be OUTSIDE the warp, and that would make it impossible to travel FTL according to the same equations that are used to ‘construct’ the bubble. It is further found that the bubble is incapable of ACCELERATING. Curving space does NOT accelerate the bubble, so ‘something’ external to the bubble must provide acceleration - again making FTL travel impossible. (Bobert & Martire found this I believe, others agree) NB. ‘Exotic matter’ and ‘negative matter’ are the same thing. Those were my main issues (in addition it would be TENS of thousands of tons of anti-matter required, or MILLIONS for 94% of light speed - but you got the general idea right, IT’S A LOT). Otherwise a fun series and I often watch Simon.

[@jp7357]

How does a 1cm satellite transmit anything back to earth? Voyager I has a huge antenna and a nuclear power source and the signal is only just making back

[@mho...]

How about a solar powered "Railgun" on the Moon to give Satellites & maybe Spacecraft a Jumpstart for their Space Adventures?!

[@JayGee1]

Only me that noticed that the background with numbers are flipped ?

[@innervision119]

What about the halo drive? Where you fire a Lazer at a spinning black hole and it comes back at you with more energy?

[@jamesh1017]

Solar sails, so out past Pluto would sails get hit by same numbers of photon's or less?

[@omibowers1219]

Video suggestions -jupiters Trojan's

[@gamereditor59ner22]

...... If possible, you could make synergy engine to complement both speed and fuel efficiency....🤔

[@Caderynwolf]

Wait... this is another one of your channels simone!?!! I mean, I was joking on your business blaze channel about there being 17, but damn man at this rate half the channels on youtube will be you at this rate!

[@davidbrisbane7206]

It seem to me that we could build a giant linear accelerator in space powered by fusion reactors (when we perfect them) and accelerate a suitably shielded spacecraft up to a high fraction of the speed of light. The accelerator might be a few kilometres long. It might even be circular and when the desired speed via acceleration is achieved, then the spacecraft could be directed and released towards its target star system. Of course, humans couldn't travel this way because of the G force and radiation involved, but it is likely that larger spacecraft could use this method piloted by AI machines on our behalf. Journeys of hundreds of years would easily be possible for these AI machines using minimum resources. If we could build a spacecraft large enough, then it could carry along solar craft and decelerate them when they approach the target star system. This way a landing craft could be deployed or placed in an asteroid belt (if it exists) in the target star system with suitable equipment and maybe the AI machines could build decelerating laser beam systems, or even another linear accelerator (used as decelerator) to slow approaching larger spacecraft from Earth. This would require mining and manufacturing plants in space. One could easily imagine that after many hundreds of years that the deceleration systems (solar and linear) would be in place to receive scheduled incoming spacecraft from Earth, that had been sent at regular intervals over the past several hundred years. Unfortunately, humans you'd have to be generically altered to hibernate, or maybe stored as fertilised embryos on spacecraft to make the journey and the spacecraft would have to be slowly accelerated to the speed of light to survive. But once the decelation systems were in place, possibly a very long series of them stretching over a vast distance, then the human spacecraft could be decelerated to low speeds in the target system and basically move into cities that the AI machined had built for them on moons and planets. This might take a thousand or more years to achieve for star systems only a few tens of light years from Earth, but there are plenty of star systems to choose from at that distance. Then the whole process is repeated inside the new star system and pointed at yet another star system to be colonied this way. But, after one or two new homes for humanity had been created this way just in case of a solar system or planetary extinction event, then they would possibly not be much need or desire for humans to travel further into the galaxy. Of course the machines could keep on going building this huge infrastructure, but why? We'd only need a fraction of this infrastuction for the AI machines to do scientific exploration on our behalf.

[@tobiasmyers3505]

Yeah. Use solar sails to help Deceleration; and maybe smaller craft could jettison backwards with saved fuel and solar sails or maybe even travel through an oort cloud or asteroid belt and sort of bungy-net those objects to slow down, like Spider-Man flying through asteroids and shooting webs to decelerate.

[@stfu_mango_baboon]

Would be the coolest proof of aliens... a thousand kites flying through the solar system taking pictures as if they were on vacation as they sped on out of the solar system toward their next star target.

[@seantrevathan3041]

Orion would not produce much fallout. The bombs were only about low kiloton range and high altitude bursts do not produce much fallout(there isn't as much material to irradiate).

[@Cuckoorex]

Whatever method that ends up (possibly) working, the entire effort will be a total waste if the spacecraft isn't designed to look like a Star Destroyer.

[@seantrevathan3041]

That's fundamental science.

[@TeamQuigley]

As a child I thought we would space travel with vibration. Like some dude with a microphone singing his way through the galaxy. In my defense our surround sound speakers moved my mums decorations so it seemed pretty reasonable to me and my undeveloped brain.

[@seanehle8323]

The problem of the Alcubierre drive isn't that it only works on paper... because it doesn't really work on paper, either. The spacetime bubble your ship is in cannot be accelerated... it only moves as fast as it was moving when you made it... so even if you could make one... what's the point... just turn off your engines and keep moving at the same speed, anyway.

[@Rose_Harmonic]

Laser sales do have the advantage of infrastructure being sent out a head using some combination of methods so that you do actually have a way to slow down at the destination. A solar system scale economy could use lasers to push out a whole string of asteroids, each equipped with a huge tank of hydrogen, a fusion reactor, and some laser beams. A ship could ride on the first asteroid until it's time to slow down, and it would ride the laser light of the asteroid until it passes the next one about a light week behind. A light week is the proposed the distance that a laser beam could remain sufficiently focused and useful. The next installation on the next asteroid slows you down more, and the next one and the next one and the next one and the next one. Suddenly, you're in solar orbit in another solar system with a full tank of fuel. The asteroids, themselves traveling slightly faster, may later deposit further ships near subsequent star further away after using the gravity of the first star to bend their course. Each ship would then start chewing on some local materials to produce local laser infrastructure to decelerate following traffic.

[@mukonank783]

Personally I think at this moment the most attractive option is the wrap drive option since it completely bypasses the time dilation issue.

[@Vastin]

Yeah... from the standpoint of implementation it's currently a complete non-starter. If you were to chart out the difficulty of the engineering involved, solar sails would be a 1, nuclear bomb pumped ships would be a 2, fusion drives would be a 5, Antimatter would probably be a 10, and the AWD would be 1000+. It's also by far the most likely to simply be completely impossible due to conflicts with actual physical reality. According to our current understanding of physics it IS impossible, for several different reasons.

[@burningbarnavit]

​@@Vastinthere is literally no law of physics that prevents warp drive. People much smarter than you and I have already laid out the peer reviewed maths to do so. The only thing preventing the hypothesis from moving forward is a lack of funding, and more importantly, we currently lack the ability to produce enough energy in an efficient manner to do the research. This will change once we've ridden ourselves from the shackles of fossil fuels and the profit-motivated "leaders" that we let stifle innovation. Fusion power will open doors people never imagined existed.

[@silent9077]

It also bypasses the deceleration problem.

[@modern_memory]

falafel wrap ftw

[@valuebasedbusinessbyanders3709]

@@silent9077 warp drives cannot accelerate or decelerate 'by themselves. You can CURVE space, but that does NOT generate any FORCE forwards or backwards, and you can never control anything OUTSIDE the bubble.

[@lesrankins5025]

You list the Alcubierre warp drive but not the Bussard Ramjet. I would think the ramjet is far more doable than a warp drive. Of the ones you listed the antimatter drive has the most possibility. You build your antimatter factory on the far side of the moon and use solar panels as your energy source. You only get your energy 50% of the time but there's a hell of a lot of it when the lights are on.

[@seantrevathan3041]

You could also harvest antimatter in some parts of the solar system.

[@MacVerick]

How many channels this guy going to make?

[@BaronVonQuiply]

01:26 This is actually a minor trope/joke in science fiction. Colonists set out on a ship and by the time they arrive, the landscape is dotted with suburbs and shopping malls built by the masses who left a few years later.

[@dpsamu2000]

You started with propulsion. You have to start with payload. Getting to the stars is all about weight. The minimal conceivable payload is hardware that can contain a mind. Next thing is equipment to affect things when we get there. Take a robot? Or equipment to effectively be installed in a native host. That payload can be small enough to launch with an electric catapult and a solar sail to slow at the end plunging to the star with a standard heat shield to use the atmosphere of the star for aerobraking. Another thing that makes these rocketships go up is funding. The computer technology that would be needed is the best funded, and fastest growing industry on Earth right now. The hardware for the catapult is already on the shelf from several companies using various solutions, and has an undeveloped market that makes it a buyer's market. Good time to get a good price. If you can find a lower price anywhere loony Dave will eat a mexican cinnamon hat.

[@Indyofthedead]

Then there's an actual, functioning quantum drive being launched into space this month (October) to test how it performs in a vacuum

[@AndrewJohnson-oy8oj]

Solar sails do not work in any way like a wind sail. Wind sail propulsion comes from the wind blow ACROSS the sail using Bernulli's Principle to suck the boat forward. Solar sail propulsion comes the "Solar wind" colliding directly onto the sail, imparting a tiny amount of the inertia of billions of photons. They are almost directly opposite in principle.

[@bitrage.]

Umm dust floating around in interstellar space would become a big problem at high speeds, both slowing craft down and damaging it

[@sadravin1]

unfortunately, there were more problems with the warp bubble than you mentioned. One of them is you can’t see what’s going on outside the war bubble another one is you can’t steer another one is whatever speed you intend to go at warp speed must be achieved before the creation of the warp bubble

[@RupertReynolds1962]

Oh lordy--another channel? ;-)

[@hudsonshuck9578]

Unfortunately the “C” in DRACO is for cislunar and as far as I have heard so far the mission goal is a demonstration of nuclear engine on orbit (of earth), but if anyone knows more definitely correct me please!

[@valuebasedbusinessbyanders3709]

Maybe rename it DRATO (for 'translunar'), doesn't have the same 'ring' to it :):):)

[@usonumabeach300]

Wouldn't solar sails be susceptible to damage from debris?

[@markl3893]

I had to stop at 8:20 and go bake some chocolate chip cookies 😄

[@forgedpanda]

Ok hear me out what about a we use fusion engine that when we travel from star to star we compress the fusion reaction into something close to a black hole, get the energy from the mini black hole made to fuel the ships faster then light engines n need only a few lbs of materials to start the reaction