Interstellar Travel Without Breaking Physics with Andrew Higgins

[@Surannhealz]

This guy gets it. Best way to get humans to do something, is to tell them they can’t do it. I like yer style dude.

[@ejtattersall156]

The only way humans "explore" is when they are refugees or invaders. The US went to the moon to show a big totem to the Soviets: We Are Strong! Don't Invade! Exploring is evolutionary dangerous, so it is only done out of greed or necessity.

[@Midg-td3ty]

Best way to get the most high quality info is to tell everybody they have no clue and tell your theories with absolute conviction. Sit back and wait for quality responses. Then tell everyone they are wrong and tell them why. Humans love to prove others wrong and do their best work to spite you.

[@bugsy742]

@@Midg-td3ty 😆 so true my friend 🙏🤝

[@1112viggo]

Why has no one told the medical researchers they can´t cure cancer yet? I can´t believe how much time iv wasted running marathons, wearing ribbons and making donations. I could have just wrote the doctors a mocking letter.

[@Surannhealz]

@@1112viggo you think there aren’t researchers and doctors trying to cure cancer for the fame of being the one who figured out the impossible? 🤔

[@XionUnjust]

This interview was speechless this man has so much information that he just threw on to all of us that it just blows my mind. I had no idea that birds can sense that in the wind and there was an actual application for using it with a glider. This changes everything and I really hope that the people that are in this field working on this live a long life so they can give us as much knowledge as possible for us to go into interstellar space. Thank you so much for this interview

[@Peter_Trevor]

Speechless! It was full of speech.

[@mr.anonymous5856]

@@Peter_Trevor Ha,Ha!😆

[@gregkocher5352]

How birds can sense these conditions.... just recalled an article describing how birds use a quantum physics effect to percieve magnetic fields. I wonder what else they can see?

[@robinwinsor4392]

In all the years I’ve been watching science content on KZbin this is by far the most exciting one ever. I was glued to this interview from start to finish and am now trying to figure out if I can get to Montreal for the symposium. Thank you so much!

[@jckdnls9292]

Symposium sounds like a symphony of possums

[@eamonia]

A what!? Holy crap, take my money. That would be so freakin' cute! We could dress 'em up in little tuxedos and bowties and put a little cummerbund on the conductor. We're doin' it, dude. We're doin' it.

[@Broken-Silencer]

This is the opposite of click bait. Thiskept appearing on my feed, I clicked on it, and really enjoyed it. I'm now going to get a lot of magnets from hard drives, a really strong motorcycle helmet and a very long snorkel and aim for Alpha C. I might need a really big mobile phone to let you all know what I find.

[@frasercain]

Awesome, let Andrew know once you've got a prototype

[@JeremyAndersonBoise]

That’s one hell of a snorkel!

[@glennmitchell9107]

@@JeremyAndersonBoise It's a quantum snorkel that is connected to a portal that provides air from the Bahamas.

[@mskellyrlv]

Good tp hear that Jeff Greason's talents are being utilized. Though we've lost touch, I always appreciated Jeff's intellect and vision.

[@das_it_mane]

Theoretical physicists are great but practical engineering is arguably more fascinating when discussing topics like this! Great convo!

[@crustyoldfart]

" practical engineering is arguably more fascinating ". YES, and it's much more difficult expensive and time consuming.

[@chuckschillingvideos]

Hilarious that you mention it when the practical engineering is entirely glossed over and taken as a given both by the interviewee and the guy presenting the video. And let's not forget the financials of such a venture. These things aren't built free of charge, you know.

[@VRnamek]

practical and realistic here meaning building a thousand kilometers long tube filled with tons of ice. Sorry if I'm not waiting for this to be a thing in our lifetime or our kids lifetimes. Perhaps eventually once there's an actual space-building industry mostly automated by bots and large scale 3D printing in a few centuries. But to get there we certainly need the dreamers and the pioneers with much smaller scales...

[@skateboardingjesus4006]

Nah, don't need 'em. Give me a garage full of decent tools, a roast beef and pickle sandwich, and I'll get you and your kids to Tau Ceti. My latent gravitational bridge drives are all the talk around Epsilon Eridani.

[@k4everut]

@@crustyoldfart I think you missed the point of "practical engineering." Practical engineering takes into account cost, especially whether or not the cost of building an apparatus is feasible based on what it needs to do. If it's difficult, expensive, and time consuming, then it's not practical.

[@SirCharles12357]

Andrew Higgins needs to write a book for the general public. This is a really fascinating topic. I'd read it and it would likely inspire many people to pursue this goal.

[@dazingamaine4318]

really? so you are applauding someone who says it aint possible and is proud that his mind is limited by science dogma? well you guys aint scientists so it makes sense. like science fanboys. like the guy who couldnt play in a team but is an armchair coach. i salute your belief in the system. youtubers like this lower iq points. unless you are researching something you dont get to say its possible... i mean imagine a world where no one can lift over 100kg because everyone believed it to be impossible. in that world these guys would be talking about how no human has done it. this aint science. its a new form of religion. before we had electricity no one would have believed it. they are indoctrinated. anyone can recite doctrine.you only need memory and a belief that its true. true intelligence is discovering OR understanding a concept before its mainstream. why? because when its mainstream you just need to memorize. so please wake up science is just as sickening as religion was in the 90s. covid jabs was the best example. here is a prophecy this year its gonna be tried again in the winter. and the jab was doctrine. funny how 60-70 percent of white people took it out of fear. so many died. about 40 people died a week straight after that i know..... so please stop looking for someone with all the answers. every single human is a scientist. the so called scientists havent cured cancer or aids. havent found sustainable energy. and seem to be purely rhetoric based or making viruses that accidentally escape from a lab. so in a nutshell beat your fear of death and you see through their lies. stay afraid and they can make you change your gender or hate foreigners. the only time we can think like this is if we really understood everything. we dont. especially not a greed based culture. if you want some food for thought: biology chemistry physics ?????? - there is a fourth branch of science that no one knows about. however think about what these three study. if you get it it should be obvious what the fourth one does. however if you only have doctrine instead of critical thinking in you it shall never make sense. to those who get it... your welcome i dont think it has a name yet but that just means its brand new. however i strongly believe only those with a soul will see it. good luck. live strong namaste

[@rafaelgonzalez4175]

The goal of space travel is not far off. String theory states particles communicate at very far distances. That communication can be the start to jump points. Going from one particle in space to another same like partical. Then, energy conversion with quantum physics. Converting matter to energy, and back to matter. This, I am sure, would be sub quantum level reverse engineering. Then splitting atoms safely can be the power necessary to manipulate weak and strong forces. Implementing what we already know from the information available.

[@richard--s]

Wow, what a great interview with so many great ideas! I feel like a kid or teenager reading Carl Sagan's book "Our Universe" and finding all those great ideas in there, for propulsion for space exploration (and also the ideas about more or less balloons to explore gas giants like Jupiter or Saturn). But now here are fresh ideas, on some orders of magnitude even better... Wow! How could I have missed this for a year, but finally KZbin is persistently showing me the thumbnail of this interview in the recent days.. And it's worth every minute of watching it!

[@egillis214]

Like all sails and sailors, the solar winds blow and doldrums. We will have to add thrust on our own and find the pattern interstellar seas...

[@GammaFields]

This was the video that ultimately urged me to pursue my dream of studying physics, now I start my journey next week. It was content like Fraser's that has kept my flame stoked through the rain. Thank you for this great interview and the months of inspiration I've received from your many videos.

[@fascistpedant758]

Fantastic interview! Thanks. It's great to know we have people like Andrew Higgins right here at McGill.

[@peterbreis5407]

There is a 1 billionth scale model of the Solar System along the Melbourne foreshores with a 1.4m diameter Sun centred in St Kilda, a 12.5mm Earth 150m away and Pluto 5.8km away near Port Melbourne. When you walk the distance between 140mm Jupiter and 116mm Saturn (assuming they actually were in alignment, which they mostly aren't) you truly appreciate just how much nothing there is in space. I missed it the first time I was there, but a 215mm Proxima Centauri is near the Sun in this scale, based on having travelled the entire circumference of the Earth to reach it. The scale you mention of the Sun being the size of a grapefruit, the Earth would be much smaller than a peppercorn.

[@planetdisco4821]

Yes! I live in port melbourne and over the Covid lockdown made it my goal to walk the entire solar system with my Doberman. We finally did it but we were pretty tired afterward lol….

[@AndersWelander]

I enjoy the channel Meatball studios here on KZbin. One of the videos begins with a quark and goes to the end of the universe. It is all just a whole bunch of nothingness. My favorite theory for the shape of the universe is a giant 5D donut with a Big Bang in the center. If that is true then there are probably many such donuts (and other baked goods) sparsely distributed in something even bigger and mostly empty something.

[@alfredoperez2499]

@@planetdisco4821 o

[@DrDeuteron]

If you heat that model sun to 5,778K, it would look just like the real sun from 150m.

[@planetdisco4821]

@@DrDeuteron plus it would be great for a bbq

[@philochristos]

That was a fun interview. It makes me wish I were immortal to see what kind of technologies and discoveries are going to happen long after I would've died.

[@jeffparry2754]

Don't worry, humans won't make it to be interstellar species. The proof is the universe, if it was possible, the billion, trillions of stars would have coughed up at least one civilization.

[@nicolasolton]

This is a great conversation Fraser. Props to you for this and everything else you do!

[@marcariotto1709]

The idea he finishes describing around 29 minutes in makes me think of a non mechanical gyroscope with layers of counteropposing spinning fields creating opposing perpendicular forces. I've no clue how you could redirect one of the opposing vectors 180° to act in sync with the other one, but such a rotating field might also be part of what would allow and control steering and bouncing off the differential winds.

[@icaleinns6233]

Fascinating interview, thanks Frasier! Imagine getting up to 20 - 30% without a Jupiter massed quantity of negative energy! Didn't think I was going to watch the entire thing when I started it due to the length, but once he started talking I was hooked.

[@thatswhatithought6519]

My dream is to have a spacecraft moving at 30% the speed of light along with hookers and cocaine

[@palfers1]

We need a lot more interviews like this!

[@stuartcarter7053]

Catching up on all the space news and stories. Loved this interview...even though most of it blasted over my head at 10% the speed of light. Thanks Fraser for another great interview

[@134StormShadow]

Only just found this video. Wish I'd seen it when it was first aired. ... I've got a LOT of catching up to do - so I'm going to be up all night watching videos, crunching numbers and generally giving my grey matter a much needed hell of a work out. Thank you 🥰🥰😊😊

[@toby9999]

Unlike many commenters below who seemingly take all ideas total literally and then bash them... I really enjoyed the tossing of ideas around. I enjoy the process of speculation and thinking outside of the box.

[@frasercain]

Exactly. It doesn't hurt to brainstorm within the laws of physics as we understand them. I think some people just don't like to speculate.

[@jmyname8290]

This is such a great interview. Mr. Higgins is a great teacher!

[@mikemars5984]

😂😂😂

[@fsmoura]

0:01 _"I feel like I am a dream killer"_ Heck yeah! Back then I showed up on the channel, and started dreaming of visiting a place with such lush vegetation as Fraser's backgrounds, only to later learn it's just very advanced green screen CGI! ( ;-;)

[@realzachfluke1]

lol ʕ⁠´⁠•⁠ᴥ⁠•⁠`⁠ʔ

[@motomono]

On many stages of human development people were convinced that this or that was impossible. And it wasn’t that they did know nothing about the world. They had science and technology on some level. But then after some time it turned out that people discovered the whole level of rules of the world and suddenly everybody can fly - just the way our ancestors couldn’t imagine. Today we know it’s impossible to travel to other stars or galaxies in human lifespan but who knows what we discover in the future? Maybe it becomes possible in ways we can’t even comprehend.

[@alperenozturk9235]

I believe its fundamentally different. We are watching birde fly since we are humans. Say we found out its about wings in 1500 BC in the mithos of Icarus. First flight 1903. We never seen a body doing interstellar travel except maybe astroids. And math will always be same, unless we just tear up reality(space-time) .

[@motomono]

@@alperenozturk9235 Not at all. Yes we imagined we fly like birds which even now is impossible. But we do fly today. Just different way that our ancestors could think. The same can be with traveling between stars. Now we think about star ships and warp drives because our imagination is a projection of our world. We know that faster than light travel through space is imposible for us just like flying like a bird. But we know that the space itself can expand faster than light. We certainly do not know everything, what is possible and even less what is impossible. So I'd say maybe one day we, or what we'll become, will be able to travel between stars in ways we humans can't even imagine.

[@alperenozturk9235]

@@motomono I see where you coming from but you missed one point. We haven't seen any body doing what you have, or other hopefull thinkers describe. I believe we as humans are pretty much stuck in our near space. And we will have our minions(small or big machinery dedicated in simple operations) will scatter near star systems for information and resources.

[@motomono]

@@alperenozturk9235 What I want to say is that we don't know what we don't know. Do you agree with that?

[@alperenozturk9235]

@@motomono of course, its why its worth to keep studying.

[@spock00021]

Dynamic Soaring Glider - mind blown!

[@JohnBoen]

New topic for John: Dynamic soaring. THANK YOU! I see applications in particle acceleration. I see applications in plasma control. I see applications in 30 story building air flow processes. I see thermodynamic applications akin to sonic refrigeration. You have just given me months of things to think about. I will never get any work done.

[@frasercain]

It's an absolutely mind-blowing concept. I can see why it's got your brain racing.

[@johngriffiths118]

Real privilege to hear this man . Surprised he had the spare time . His brains so big it’s cauterised his hair cells. Excellent vid

[@mariohnyc]

I just watched a video of one of the dynamic soaring gliders they spoke about, and saw speeds in excess of 500mph.

[@glennhobden5565]

Best video of the year. Thank you Fraser you have given us something to get excited about.

[@Frazec_Atsjenkov]

Dreams are there to inspire us. They don't have to be practical or realistic, they can just be fantastic dreams.

[@A_J_Higgins]

Agreed. Although, I would add that it is helpful if your dreams are consistent with the laws of the conservation of energy and the conservation of momentum.

[@Frazec_Atsjenkov]

@@A_J_Higgins I'd say it's helpful to know the difference between fiction and reality. They are very different, but both have their part to play. Staying within the realm of the possible is eminently practical. But dreaming the impossible can be fun, and provides us with mental energy. And sometimes, just sometimes, imagining the impossible may lead to breakthroughs. That being said, I also don't think anyone will break the laws you just mentioned. Some pursuits are foolhardy. Unfortunately, we don't know beforehand how fruitful an approach may be.

[@BuckeyeStormsProductions]

When I was around 11 or 12 years old, I had this idea of a solar wind surfer spacecraft. I imagined it riding the edge of a propagating solar wind/wave and gaining huge amounts of speed. I had read somewhere how surfers could gain speed faster riding a wave perpendicular vs parallel, and I extrapolated the idea out. I more recently learned about dynamic soaring, and the amazing speeds they are able to achieve with RC gliders. I never mentally extrapolated the same idea out to solar winds like I did with surfing. That's a wild concept!

[@dougcoombes8497]

My interest in the last decade has been in nuclear power and molten salt reactors specifically. The initial interest was in slow spectrum molten salt reactors using a fluoride/lithium/beryllium salt modeled on the Oak Ridge Molten Salt Reactor Experiment which ran for four year in the 1960s. Recent interest has shifted to fast spectrum molten salt reactors that use chloride salts which are safer, have better understood chemistry and are much cheaper. Sodium chloride is table salt. The advantage of fast spectrum reactors is at over 1 MeV U-238 and Th-232 become weakly fissile and add to the neutron budget. These reactors will run on spent nuclear fuel and plutonium from decommissioned weapons. They can also include depleted uranium as part of the fuel cycle. All this means there are very large stockpiles of fuel for these reactors currently being stored at considerable cost as high level waste. This could be the ample energy source needed to power an anti-matter production facility. Also molten salt reactors run much hotter than water moderated and cooled nuclear reactors making them far more practical for use in space. A cold water source is not needed to produce the thermal efficiency to draw the required amount of heat out of the reactor core. A molten salt reactor on a spaceship or a Moon base would use radiator fins for cooling. Hook one of these up to a Hall thruster and you have a much more efficient way to accelerate at least at interplanetary distances.

[@stupidburp]

Moving to HALEU at about 18% enrichment as the new standard fuel for civilian use would be a good first step and is achievable in the near term with commercial ready reactors. TRISO packaging as standard could be an added bonus for a new standard. Dramatic advantages can be obtained just by updating the standard fuel.

[@NonBinary_Star]

one of the most insightful and informative interviews I've heard in a long time. thanks

[@maverickrider4591]

Money spent on this endeavor will reap untold advancements in our daily lives. Hats off to the professor who can make a difficult to understand subject understandable to those of us lucky enough to hear him speak. Thanks to Professor Higginsber, and Fraser Cain for tuning me in.

[@bashkillszombies]

Money spent on anything to do with space is mostly diverted to 'science educator' hires who do nothing but talk all day. It's a farce at this point. Our only hope is the private sector.

[@kstaxman2]

So many amazing things we haven't even imagined yet to be discovered.

[@GrantTregellas]

This was the interview that got me into following this channel a year ago

[@veggiet2009]

If we could achieve 2% of the speed of light in the solar system means that we could get to Pluto in 10 days! I had to do the calculation in Wolfram alpha, before the end of the episode, so I have no idea if they address this in the video

[@thatswhatithought6519]

I would take a piss on Pluto

[@thatswhatithought6519]

And smoke a blunt

[@PeloquinDavid]

What assumption did you make about acceleration and deceleration time? (If you ignored it entirely, you're dramatically underestimating the time to travel short-ish distances like those within the solar system or even to reach the nearest stars.

[@blazer666del]

Yes but you would just zoom past it.. you would have to accelerate half the distance then decelerate the other half. So still looking at months or years together there

[@richardmarkham8369]

Best qualifications for getting into interstellar propulsion? Basic pyhsics and sailing!

[@frankshifreen]

Great Video

[@jayc2469]

I just imagine Andrew Higgins as a Teacher! - Teaching as Many Eager Minds as humanly possible!!

[@josephsummerhays4650]

"Just you wait Andrew 'iggins, just you wait! You'll be sorry Andrew 'iggins, by' I' ull be too late!"

[@jpgohard]

Every time I hear about using the solar winds for interstellar travel I think about that Deep Space 9 episode (Explorers, Season 3, Ep. 22). Commander Sisko built a sailing ship based off of an ancient Bajoran design and achieved warp speed. I loved that show!

[@A_J_Higgins]

Thanks for the recommendation. I watched that episode last night.

[@jengleheimerschmitt7941]

...I couldn't get over how over-the-top steampunk he made that ship. 😄 the hand crabks and manual tiller were too silly for me. If this concept pans out, the power is not going to be on the order of a small sailboat ffs.

[@jpgohard]

@@jengleheimerschmitt7941 he was way over the top...I agree. He insinuated as much when he gave Jake a tour of the craft if memory serves me correctly lol...

[@notlessgrossman163]

That waa my favorite episode by far. He even used wood in its construction and the whole story was very plausible.

[@copperstaterocketguy1640]

Zepharim Cochran would turn over in his grave!!

[@mikefeierberg7712]

I'm glad we don't have to wait for a warp drive to be invented to get a closeup look at exoplanets! I don't think I'll live to 2050 to see a probe launched to Alpha C, but my son almost certainly will and that blows my mind.

[@jamescollier3]

Math: nope

[@mortophobegaming6454]

Well compare the evolution of space travel with nautical travel: at first we figured out how to row a boat, much later sails were added (also a drag device). With those we discovered new continents, had the VoC era, and much much later giant engines the size of houses were built to propel ships regardless of the elements

[@CeresKLee]

Using antimatter to leverage U-238 nuclear rocket - Q Drive - "Cowcatchers" for micro-starcraft - using Jupiter as a particle accelerator - energy from anywhere the starwinds have a differential - the Tennessee Valley Interstellar Conference. ZOWIE! Give this man all the money to support this amazing research!

[@peterb9038]

Great Interview! I've always been a fan for the solar wind ;-) and for a second age of sail, looking forward to it, Thank you Fraser and Andrew.

[@Laszlo34]

Leia: "Would it help if I got out and pushed?" Han: "...It might!!"

[@johnhanson2490]

Maybe an interesting thought: I wonder if there is a way to collect mass as one performs gravitational assists and solar wind turns that would allow for increasing one's kinetic energy without, as it were, gaining velocity and thereby running out of solar system? That is, in stage 1 of your sailing trip, you intentionally slow yourself by grabbing stuff (gas, whatever) as you perform these maneuvers and then once you reach a certain level of mass, you start stage 2, stop accumulating mass, and accelerate up to some crazy speed, then in stage 3, you take advantage of the energy of your accumulated mass and extreme speeds via Q-drive ideas by shooting your accumulated mass out the back.... Great video in any case! Really enjoyed it.

[@michaelcanan5794]

Every barrier we have encountered, or will encounter,has a will be overcome. Dream's in the past are now reality today. As will be in the future.

[@user-ol2mr4bx7c]

16:50 I'm picturing a skateboarder on a half pipe "pumping" with his legs on each transition 🤘 I'm sorry if this analogy is bad

[@spaceman9599]

Used to work on the problem of getting just a probe to Proxima - even with ablative photonics that was a wicked problem to solve. People? Hard to see how at the moment, short of the slow route - generation ships. First, there is the time issue, even if we partially solve this using entanglement for communication, I cannot see how society can evolve in current paradigms to the flexible enough to embrace effectively time travellers. Then significant size and speed require force fields to deflect the otherwise catastrophic collision events. Getting around that with e.g. Albiquerre relies on being able to harness singularities or other exotic matter and put it relatively close to the passengers, which is many orders of magnitude harder problem than mere deflection.

[@blinkonceonsunday1325]

All we need to do is reach 10% lightspeed. We could send the first manned mission to Proxima Centauri. It would be a 40-50 year journey, but it's possible to get there within a single lifetime. I think that's the most realistic goal at this point. The other possibility is sending a sleeper ship or generational colony ship which could possibly take hundreds of years to reach its destination. But trying to build a vessel that could survive for that length of time is also highly questionable and risky. And you'd also have to know there's a habitable planet before you send the mission.

[@AntonBrazhnyk]

At relativistic speeds time on board of that ship apparently should go slower, so the crew would not age that much.

[@silberlinie]

Very good Fraser. I would very much like to continue to see your skepticism and sharp logic. For example, let me say about the question and the possibility of our species and the desire and longing for the stars: Regarding the antimatter drive: - In 1996 some PICOGRAM anti-hydrogen atoms were successfully produced at CERN in Geneva for a few NANOSECONDS. Andrew Higgins speaks of a few kilograms of it for a very, very long travel time. What quantitative progress is there from 1996 to 2023? To the sun sails: - Tiny solar sails have hardly any capable control mechanisms, far-reaching communication options and complex orientation apparatuses integrated into them. Although some tiny life forms on Earth seem to be able to do it with brains of 0.025 mm2. The mayflies.

[@marcariotto1709]

The way he describes this whole idea of using the differentials in fields reminds me of refrigeration and moreso heat pumps, but converting the energy into drive power insted of heat transfer.

[@stellarpod]

Absolutely riveting segment, Fraser. Andrew is quite a visionary. Gives me hope. As always, thanks much for sharing. Steve

[@CeresKLee]

The closest known black hole is either V Puppis (960 ly) or HR 6819 (1,000 ly). I proposel that we build an O'Neill Cylinder with an anti-matter drive to go there. This is a generation starship that use the black hole to slow it done and enter orbit about the black hole. We talking a journey of about 5,000-10,000 years or more at 20% of c. The mission to start a base to build Halo Drive starships as proposed by Kipper, "Fuel-free Relativistic Propulsion of Large Masses via Recycled Boomerang Photons". This will open select parts of the galaxy, hopping from black hole to black hole. The bad news, to get back to Earth is HARD - maybe we could launch a Halo Drive starship with just enough moment to reach Earth and Bussard ramjet for breaking. Starting with 10,000 people in the first O'Neill starship, they will have descendants throughout the galaxy that will far out number the population of the Solar System in about 50,000 short years or so. STRONG DREAM REIGN HERE.

[@Crit.Happens]

I know this video is old, but this has to be said. Our species needs more people like you and the scientists you interview. As a civilization we need to rekindle our interests in exploring beyond the walls we have set for ourselves else we will stagnate. You and others have settled into the roles that the giants of Bill Nye and Carl Sagan have done before you, and I hope that you do for others what they have done for me. For us to succeed as a species we need to turn our gaze starwards as any alternative will never be as bright.

[@rJaune]

Wow, this was fascinating! Thanks so much, you two

[@ylette]

Very interesting discussion. Fingers crossed for a launch this century. 🤞

[@BethBarany]

I really loved this conversation! Need to listen again! So inspiring!

[@44R0Ndin]

I've always been a bigger fan of "hard" sci-fi, namely the kind that focuses on fusion drives and only ever mentions warp drives as "theoretical curiosities" that we haven't ever achieved. So this is a welcome breath of fresh air. So tired of the "aliens" having the FTL tech and gifting it to us. So tired of us discovering how "easy" it is to go FTL ourselves. It trivializes the true difficulty of all things space travel, and in so doing it loses a lot of it's punch. There's some part of me that says "NASA and the like are purpose-oriented to tackle the most technically challenging areas of engineering we have yet faced, allowing a human to exist in an environment that has never encountered a being like them". And the rest of me goes "That's just a hair's breadth distant from being literally impossible, so why are all these sci-fi media depicting it being as easy as driving to the grocery store?" The story shouldn't be "XYZ plot, but in space". The story should be "Space, period." Unfortunately, nobody seems to be interested in writing that kind of sci-fi, it all seems to be in books written in the 40's to the -60's, with only a few select authors. More of it is needed IMO. Few example plots I can think of, just because there's oh-so-many ways for your ship to betray you in the most insidious of lethal ways: Life support systems fail on you? Better hope the whole crew's not in hibernation, or that the automated systems can wake up enough engineers to patch it together enough to get you to a safe place, else you're gonna have an encounter with The Cold Equations. Engines malfunction? Probably not gonna have the tools or materials to fix that, if it's a nuclear engine you better cut the failed one loose, and you better also have brought a spare (you're not gonna repair the magnetic bottle on your fusion drive if it got a railgun round shot thru the containment field coils cryo plumbing, and not JUST because it's "lethal in mere seconds" radioactive). By the way, you can't just say "oh it's not radioactive because it's using D-He3 fusion which is aneutronic", because even a D-He3 reactor is only "a lot less" radioactive, not "not radioactive", you're still doing high energy atomic physics, meaning D-D fusion is gonna be happening in that reactor in side-reactions, which emits even more neutrons than D-He3 fusion. The only reason it's "Less" neutronic is because those D-D side reactions are side reactions and not the main focus, so they don't happen nearly as often. Still plenty of them to cause the reactor itself to saturate any kind of radiation detector you care to point at it, with the drive turned off for 30 days and THEN measured. Colony run short on supplies, like needing a water pipe? Use lasers to 3-d print a stone or concrete water pipe out of local regolith, because if you use a pipe from anywhere remotely near the ship's power reactor or nuclear engines, the whole colony is gonna be fighting any number of "new and interesting" cancers. You thought Radium Jaw was bad, what do you think happens when the very water you drink and bathe with has been turned radioactive by a wrongly-selected piece of plumbing? Oh and it's not just pipes, valves and fittings are bad news too. So is something as mundane as an O-ring. Literally any matter that has been irradiated should be banned from contact with the potable water, ventilation, sanitation, or any other system that helps support the crew. Yes, that includes the sewer pipes, because you're almost certainly going to be recycling the wastewater from those systems. Alien contatct? Nope, no sentients, microbes at best. Alternately, if you do think we can contact sentients, it will be them contacting us, and us stumbling on to their transmissions as noise with strangely self-consistent patterns in it. Extremely extremely faint signals, we'd need at the MINIMUM a radio telescope on the Moon's far side to even have a chance of intercepting the signals so sent. The signal we sent, intentionally, probably didn't even make it to Alpha Cent, distance wise. That's how faint things get over such large distances. If you want a truly interesting set-piece, maybe us humans figure out that a pulsar isn't quite as perfectly regular as it should be in it's timing, instead it's somehow modulated. And then thru years of analysis using the most powerful supercomputers, we figure out that there is data encoded in this modulation. More years of analysis and we can figure out what that data is, if it's even digital data (who knows, they might develop computers based on "neuron" analogue cell-type constructions rather than doped semiconductors, depends on how easy it is to purify elements without resorting to what passes for biology on their world). Point is, expect it to look like "oddly patterned noise" for 5+ generations of analysis before we figure out what it is. Also expect some new religion to pop up to worship whatever it is they think it is we found when we actually still don't have a clue. Really really drive home the point of how so much of actual new territory being explored by science is best described as "fumbling around in the dark inside a house", but the only data you have is the theory of what a house is, namely something like "a house is composed of a series of connected rooms sharing a roofing system, with one or more floors, passage between floors being facilitated by stairs, ladders, or elevators". And we don't know what rooms, roofs, floors, passages, stairs, ladders, or elevators are yet either. Basically sometimes science is just flailing around in the dark and noting down what you bump into or knock over, and if you knock something over noting what noise it made when it fell.

[@arunmoses2197]

I absolutely love Andrew Higgins' enthusiasm!

[@frasercain]

Agreed!

[@markhogan4730]

So, sending out miniaturised AI probes instead of humans. That is a realistic proposal and I wish Andrew Higgins every success with the launch of the probe in his lifetime. Perhaps his descendants will witness the first probe's arrival. A fabulous dream that will become reality. 😉😁

[@rkramer5629]

Taking advantage of energy differentials to generate thrust is interesting and I think more likely than all those designs that kind of hand wave the rocket equation….but a kilograms size craft generating a planet size magnetic field has me scratching my head

[@cobbler3376]

This is a video I keep coming back to. I don't know why I'm not hearing more about this 6 months later.

[@planetsec9]

>Scientists have discovered magnetosheath jets, fast plasma streams, in Jupiter's magnetic environment New article in nature I saw and remembered this video, seems like there's a difference in energy that could be exploited there for the techniques mentioned in this video also mentions similar jets could be around other planets. I love the idea of Jupiter not just being the go-to planet for gravity assists but also plasma assists for either acceleration or deceleration with a plasma magnet/q-drive/e-sail, such a convenient planet lol

[@A_J_Higgins]

Let's keep looking for these potentially free sources of energy!

[@nicholascrooks8465]

Awesome content. Thanks for the time.

[@alanaspurling6469]

Energy density is always a problem, along with heat rejection. The temperature regime of sails to get to significant factions of the speed of light would be very close to or easily over the vaporization. I’m highly encouraged by enriched nuclear-salt water rockets… these can develop exhaust velocities comparable to high efficiency ion drives at thrust levels of chemical rockets.

[@A_J_Higgins]

There are two concerns here: When the laser is pushing on the sail, it is essential that the sail have very low absorptivity, because if it does absorb any laser light, yes, the sail will be vaporized. Fortunately, we now have materials (such as ZBLAN glass used in fiber optics) that only absorb parts per billion of the laser light incident upon them. The design of the sail will have to incorporate these materials, but it should be a solvable problem. The other concern might be heating of sail by interaction with the interstellar media. This turns out to be mostly negligible: The impact of protons and ions in interstellar space will sputter away some of the forward-exposed surface, but once the laser is turned off, the sail can fly edge-on to minimize the surface area exposed.

[@A_J_Higgins]

The nuclear salt water rocket (NSWR) is a potentially feasible concept (although, given its massive radioactivity, I would personally decline to ride on one). It is still a rocket, however, and subject to the rocket equation. Any fission-based rocket can have, at the maximum, an exhaust velocity of only about 2% the speed of light (Zubrin’s original NSWR paper concluded an exhaust velocity of 1.5% of light speed might be possible.) Such a rocket might be able to get to 3% the speed of light (with a 90% propellant fraction), but not much faster. It would take more than a century to get to Alpha Centauri. It is best to think of the NSWR as a dragster, well suited for zipping around the solar system, but not really capable of interstellar flight in human-lifetime timescales.

[@goiterlanternbase]

Isn't that stuff only radioactive enough for so long? That anti matter idea is much better, because at least anti matter doesn't decay, so the ship would not need a refinement unit, to constantly produce fuel.

[@bobbygetsbanned6049]

Could you imagine if we find a way to harness these space winds and our spacecraft ends up finding a super advanced civilization, which then sees our bunk ass ship sailing through space?

[@addos999]

this is an absolutely mind blowing idea. i really hope some test vehicles can be quickly funded to start exploring this. its this sort of smarts that'll be the answer to our inability to come up with high density energy sources or advanced propulsion engines.

[@frasercain]

You should watch those gliders breaking the speed of sound to see how powerful the idea is. :-)

[@Littlestar41752]

Asking all the right questions thank you so much!

[@deep_space_dave]

Wow Andrew said something that chimes with me and that was "I'm a little bored with our solar system" LOL As an astrophotographer I am often asked oh did you take pictures of the moon? Do you have pictures of Mars. I am like um no... I have this galaxy I would like to show you! Yeah the "System" we can come back to after we go into the deep end. Even if we hit the outer belts, still more interesting 🙂 Awesome interview! I now have to work on eating and exercising again to make sure I am alive when it finally happens LOL

[@Cha-Khia]

Personally, I'm still very excited with my own solar system, there is still a lot to do here, sure the bulk of it has been seen and done (at least the bulk of what we're capable of), but there is literally a whole solar system here, and there are still mysteries that we can discover, like what makes Pluto dance about it's orbit in such an odd fashion.

[@jamesdriscoll_tmp1515]

Mom: We have a solar system at home.

[@stupidburp]

Can peep on our stellar neighbors with space binoculars. Carl Sagan craft sized collectors about 12 m attached together with a protective housing around each. About the limit of what could be launched on a single rocket with near term options and delivered nearby JWST. Launch a dozen of them and could make real time slideshows of single objects and divide project time for multiple target objects to keep all proposals approved and active.

[@AndrewJohnson-oy8oj]

10% the Speed of Light? 10% the Speed of Light!? I like the way this guy thinks!

[@rdbchase]

The Bussard Ramjet -- definitely more romantic than practical

[@ThePulsar14]

Amazing interview reach of proposals for the future 👍🏼 happy for that

[@katanaridingremy]

Very interesting video! Great to hear people working in going fast, but almost just as important, if not more so, is protective travel in space. Some kind of field must be generated,especially at speed to travel through space safely. The risk from even space dust, let alone small rocks hitting a craft is too great, and sold also handle radiation. Who is working on these things

[@davidconner-shover51]

if most of the incoming mass can be diverted either around (a slight loss) or through (producing energy) not much of an issue, provided the magnetic field is strong enough to divert them. Please note, the speed of light is an absolute, in every frame of reference, this can be taken advantage of at subluminal speeds

[@davidconner-shover51]

@@AlphaCarinae it does turn one's perspective on it's head for sure. In my view, if this is in fact true, then the speed of light is the rest point, on a single point per photon, everything else moves in reference to it

[@Aengus42]

Here is that channel for the dynamic soaring gliders at over 500mph! youtube.com/@sll914 Edit: As a little kid I had an "Ahaa!" moment & drew a submarine that used a propeller but my bright idea was for the sub to have a turbine sticking out of it's belly that generated electricity (I'd been playing with electric motors turning them into generators) that powered a water jet drive. (I had a model boat that was powered with a water jet so I was just combining everything I knew about motors, generators, propellers & water jets) My Dad used this idea of mine to teach me about energy losses in the system & perpetual motion devices. But I was really way ahead of my time (1970) inventing an interstellar probe! Who'd a thought?! 😆

[@schmetterling4477]

That's cool. At 500mph it takes 20 days to the Moon and on the order of 100,000 hours to Mars. :-)

[@bubble_nut5000]

What isn't possible today becomes possible tomorrow. Not every idea comes to fruition, but when our understanding gets an update, problems can crumble away.

[@atlanciaza]

Makes you wonder if there will be a point in the future where it no longer remains true.

[@helmutschillinger3140]

Here are the distances to each of the mentioned star systems: 1. **TRAPPIST-1:** TRAPPIST-1 is located approximately 39.5 light-years away from Earth. 2. **Proxima Centauri:** Proxima Centauri is the closest known star to the Sun, located approximately 4.24 light-years away from Earth. 3. **Kepler-186:** Kepler-186 is located approximately 582 light-years away from Earth. 4. **Kepler-62:** Kepler-62 is located approximately 1,200 light-years away from Earth. 5. **LHS 1140:** LHS 1140 is located approximately 40 light-years away from Earth. 6. **Tau Ceti:** Tau Ceti is located approximately 11.9 light-years away from Earth. These distances are approximate and may vary slightly depending on the method used to determine stellar distances and any updates in astronomical measurements.

[@TechNed]

I watched this a few weeks ago. Now, rewatching it. It sent me down a rabbit hole, watching dynamic soaring video.

[@michaelclark5626]

The problem with the " Solar Wind " and the " Solar Protons " is that the number of them falls off as the Square of the distance away from the center of the Sun so you would still need a source of power to get you to say 30 % of the speed of light, before it gets to the point that far larger stars are slowing the space craft down again. These far larger stars might even slow the craft to a stop, and reverse its direction. So maybe it takes up to 50 Years for the craft to get to the closes star, and another 4 years for the pictures to get back to the solar system. So a teenager that gets to see the lift off heading out will have to live to be very old to see the close up images of the closes star.

[@helmutschillinger3140]

Given the most optimistic outlook and the rapid advancements in propulsion technology, several propulsion methods could potentially be tested and deployed within the next ten years. Here’s a look at what might be realistically achievable: ### 1. **Ion Propulsion:** Ion propulsion is already a proven technology, used in missions like NASA's Dawn spacecraft. Current ion thrusters can achieve speeds of up to 90 km/s (0.03% of the speed of light). - **Realistic Achievement:** Up to 0.03% of the speed of light. ### 2. **Solar Sails:** Solar sails use the pressure of sunlight for propulsion. Projects like the Planetary Society's LightSail have demonstrated the feasibility of this technology. - **Realistic Achievement:** Speeds up to 0.05-0.1% of the speed of light could be possible with optimized designs and longer acceleration times. ### 3. **Laser Sail Propulsion (Breakthrough Starshot Initiative):** Breakthrough Starshot aims to use powerful ground-based lasers to propel tiny spacecraft to a significant fraction of the speed of light. This project is still in its conceptual phase but has considerable financial backing and scientific interest. - **Optimistic Achievement:** If substantial progress is made, speeds up to 10-20% of the speed of light could be envisioned. However, within the next ten years, achieving even 1-5% of the speed of light would be a significant milestone. ### 4. **Nuclear Thermal and Fusion Propulsion:** Nuclear thermal propulsion involves heating a propellant using a nuclear reactor, while nuclear fusion propulsion would rely on fusion reactions to provide thrust. Both are more advanced than ion propulsion but still face significant technical hurdles. - **Realistic Achievement:** Speeds up to 0.1-1% of the speed of light could be theoretically achievable if substantial breakthroughs occur. ### Summary of the Most Optimistic Outlook: - **Ion Propulsion:** Up to 0.03% of the speed of light. - **Solar Sails:** Up to 0.05-0.1% of the speed of light. - **Laser Sail Propulsion:** Potentially 1-5% of the speed of light. - **Nuclear Thermal/Fusion Propulsion:** Up to 0.1-1% of the speed of light. ### Realistic Considerations: While it is unlikely that any propulsion system will achieve more than 1-5% of the speed of light within the next ten years, the most optimistic projections would involve breakthroughs in laser sail propulsion, potentially reaching up to 5% of the speed of light (approximately 15,000 km/s). This would represent a transformative leap in our ability to explore interstellar space. However, these projections remain speculative and depend on overcoming significant engineering and technological challenges.

[@cdreid9999]

Youre anything but a dream killer. The more science and math you learn the more possibilities you see. You help people dream

[@SwissPGO]

Hmmm as a physicist... I'm very critical to some of the proposals here. The analogy with the airplane without a working jet engine ... yes you can create electricity doing that... but this is mainly to keep the electronics alive... the energy does not come from nowhere, the device causes drag, and exchanges kinetic energy for electricity: the plane cannot use that electricity to "pump out water" and continue flying... that would be a perpetual motion machine. The deep space analogy mentioned here has exactly the same fallacy: you cannot extract energy from interstellar matter to steer and accelerate through it: any energy you collect will be slowing your spacecraft down. Any dust that hits your equipment will over time destroy your equipment and and as Scotty would say: sorry captain we lost power and our shields are down ;-)

[@A_J_Higgins]

"the plane cannot use that electricity to "pump out water" and continue flying... that would be a perpetual motion machine." Actually, this can work: By extracting power from the air (or interstellar media) blowing over a vehicle, it can generate net forward thrust propelling the vehicle forward by expelling reaction mass backwards. This is *not* a perpetual motion machine because there is a source of energy: The kinetic energy initially contained in whatever you are using for reaction mass (e.g., water in my airplane analogy). I agree with you that you cannot use this method of propulsion if starting from rest, but if the vehicle is set in motion by some other means (e.g., a conventional rocket), this is a valid means to accelerate it further. You are concentrating the initial kinetic energy of the reaction mass into just the kinetic energy of the final payload. You can find the complete analysis if you look in the video description above. Please see the link: "Jeff Greason’s idea for a 'Reaction Drive powered by External Pressure' (the so-called q-drive)." If you go through the analysis in that paper, you will see that it is consistent with energy and momentum conservation, precisely because the analysis is based on energy and momentum conservation! You are correct that there will be drag associated with the power extraction, and it is important that the energy extracted via drag must be used efficiently, otherwise there will be no net thrust. Much work remains to be done to make a viable engineering device, but it does not violate physics.

[@jamesrussell7760]

Professor Higgins (OMG, that brings to mind "My Fair Lady") is full of extraordinary ideas! Great interview, Frazer!

[@schrecksekunde2118]

wonderful talk

[@fzee4857]

Amazing

[@gordoncoppock6004]

Great show - just on Auroras, since most of the audience will probably be in the Northern hemisphere and its really hard to get beyond the southern Arctic Circle I would not recommend the Antarctic as a place to see Aurora (in fact I would try to discourage people from going there apart from researchers) . Travelling to above the Arctic Circle in the Scandanavian countries is relatively (by road , train, and if you really have to plane ) and of course you mention Canada. I'm always surprised how far up Alaska the Arctic Circle is ! If you can be further north of the Arctic Circles then you greatly increase the chances of seeing the Aurora even on a lower energy night providing the sky is clear.

[@richardloewen7177]

Even 0.2C would be phenomenal. Anything faster creates huge problems with SWERVING mechanical stresses.

[@bz5791]

Great interview. Love the subject matter. The only issue here is you need to work on not interrupting the guest. Was getting frustrating after a while.

[@mjpayne95]

I didn't know Howie Mandel knew so much about interstellar travel, that's amazing!

[@rogerfreeman6787]

Howie's a well rounded guy.

[@franckpasqualini2804]

There are so many problems with this concept that I don't even know where to start. Recommended procedure for anyone: 1/ Buy KSP 2/ See and understand the orbital mechanics of the bodies 3/ Understand that it's already complicated to reach an inclination >20° in solar orbit 4/ Understand that it's impossible to stay in solar orbit as soon as the speed of the spacecraft exceeds 60km/s at 1UA. 5/ Understand that surfing on solar wind waves necessarily implies being able to detect the solar wind gradient around the spacecraft continuously. 6/ Understand that surfing on solar wind waves necessarily implies having an unimaginable TWR and therefore materials that resist. 7/ Understand that the solar liberation velocity at the heliopause is so low that it's insane to believe that we can stay in solar orbit down to even 0.05% of c. 8/ Stop believing in a whole bunch of far-fetched solutions and honour the engineers of the last 200 years by understanding that if they haven't already done it, it's because it's not possible. If this concept is feasible in the next 150 years, I'll eat my hat!

[@randar1969]

space based solar sails are already in use. problem is to accelerate them with Earth based lasers requires such energies that the laser would destroy any sail i can think about. Seems to me that our best bet for now is fusion drives.. Easier to create then fusion power plant because you don't have to extract energy just use the plasma heat to accelerate on itself.

[@134StormShadow]

So, some of the best minds in this field are totally wrong, because you cant get it to work in KSP?😆 OK, lets see you put this to Andrew Higgins et al? 🤔🤔

[@franckpasqualini2804]

@@134StormShadow That's not the point: if you don't understand orbital mechanics, it's a good idea to start from the ground up, and you can do that with KSP. The thousands of problems with the concept don't depend on a game, but on physics...

[@franckpasqualini2804]

​@@134StormShadow If you already understand the basics, you can skip straight to point 4. And if you know how to solve points 4 to 7: send your proposal directly to the JPL - they'll be interested!

[@kevinkammueller7553]

I always go back to Q's line in the STNG series. When confronted with how to move a falling moon he suggested that they "just change the Gravitational constant of the universe". Obviously, we need to get a whole lot smarter and need to push physics forward by orders of magnitude, but it seems much more possible to bend the universe than it does to try and build a "faster" spaceship.

[@sandiegoadultstore1761]

I was in complete and utter fascination regarding such a high-level discussion. Solar winds, or bounce from wave to wave for travel, seem a bit prehistoric thinking. It's like inventing the wheel in prehistoric time when discussing space travel. I had this funny image of these two distinguished gentlemen in a loin cloth. All the while with a club slung over their shoulder, discussing the wheel. This isn't meant to be an insult. Each person, thing, or whatever it might exist at a certain vibration. Travel could be instant when using vibrations.

[@frasercain]

That sounds amazing. Build a prototype and you should be able to get funding from someone like NASA.

[@ElAnciano92071]

"Our" lifetimee perhaps. Never say never! ;) MY lifetime? Good luck with that! I am already 80! LoL

[@denijane89]

Ah, why there are no slides here? That could come so handy to illustrate what Andrew was discussing. I'd really like to watch an online seminar by him with all the diagrams and everything.

[@chrisnewell3331]

These videos are so very good. Thank you.

[@SirCharles12357]

I zoomed to the video referenced it's amazing! Here's the title: Dynamic Soaring - 882 kph 548 mph World Record eye witness pov

[@andrewclimo5709]

Great episode!! If future generations live for two or three hundred years, interstellar travel for people need not be impossible. And a constant 1G drive seems impossible now, even for a probe but in a generation or two... who knows (5 or 6 years for a journey to A Cent).

[@obscillesk]

Kinda strikes me that an ideal method might be carrying along as many of these power generation/propulsion methods as possible. Or figuring out ways to exploit the dynamics of different kinda of medium at the same time, rather than just the dynamics of one.

[@Wallabynge]

You can make things go very fast, using a very long linear accelerator in space. You just have to slow things down again, when they reach the destination.