A step closer to interstellar travel...

Another nice gem was found in the wide space of Internet. It seems that the smart minds of NASA have started to come around to a technical solution that the SCFI world has known for ages. The simple concept of Deflector. There have been a lot of experiments consisting of generating, stabilizing and forming of plasma fields.

We still don't have the materials to create super strong alloys that would withstand the pressure or radiation gradients of open space but they are not that far away maybe few years of theory and another two to finalize the material generation.

Nor do we have the technology to get into the orbit efficiently. The best are ether hydrogen/oxygen or kerosene/peroxide rockets. Well in few years we should have the reusable crew vehicle, but still anti gravity is just a theory. There are some promising ideas - one of which is HexaLifter - its not a mature technology, nor is it a anti gravity device. Tho it could provide some interesting flight apparatus - well if we could create a light enough power reactor capable of putting out few gigawatt's of energy and would weight around 100kg.

When we get out to the orbit, getting to the next planet will be easier as we already possess the the ION Drive technology. Getting it to go faster wont be a problem.

The hull design could be HyFish as its very aerodynamic design and also because of its light weight. Also an plasma generator could be up on the nose part of the craft to make the ride smoother.

Mind condition: Hopeful wishing at full potential.

technorati tags:Space, Travel, SCFI, Space, Flight, HexaLifter, HyFish, ION, Drive

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Cure for the braindead...

Well almost. Brain death does not really mean a condition where the brain shuts down - it can also mean that the person is not smart. Well it seems the scientists can have a cure for that in a future. These gene factors can help to regenerate the brain enough to make it learn faster and put the knowledge into long term memory. As we use only 21% of out brain matter (well at least we thing we use - no one knows exactly) we have enough spare neurons to remap our "damaged" neurons. In theory this could fight against Alzheimer's and few more memory and learning disability's. I'm guessing that it will work on normal people also by increasing their memory and learning ability.

Now I understand how the characters in SCFI movies are so smart - they meed to learn some new technology, so they take a magic pill and read the book. Woala, instant intelligence :) So if you think we have a drug problem now, think what the masterminds of the future will think out (or are on). Next generation drug wars will not be fought on who get higher fast, but who gets smarter faster. I imagine the direct brain download isn't far behind, since the normal optical data assimilation is just soo damn slow...

Too bad the pills ain't out right now - would be nice to ace the math exam (I suck at math)

technorati tags:SCFI, CREB, zif268, brain, memory, learning, future, biology

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When the SCFI and the present collide...

I was reading news today and found a nice little pearl about possible next gen (space?)flight hull design. The company is SmartFish and the future looks pretty nice :) The company looks to revolutionize the flight industry with new concepts, but I'm thinking in a bigger scale. When I first time saw the conceptual image of this design the first thing that popped into my mind was "Hey I have seen it before".

So I tried to remember where I have seen it - it was from an episode of an Star Trek Voyager episode. In that episode they designed their new shuttle and their basic holodeck conceptional model looked pretty close to HyFish. I tried to look for the image in the net but the closest I could come to a sideways image was this. It isn't the right image, but if you can watch the episode of "ST Voyager: Extreme Risk" (by this source) I'm sure You can see the similarities. A Mimbari from on of the Babylon 5 movies once said "Put a big enough engine on a flying brick and you get a starship" so the atmospheric rules don't apply in space :) The HyFish model looks a lot nicer than the Delta Fayer, but hey it lacks a warp drive, Borg weapons, teleporters, antigrav, antimatter core, unimatrix shields and who knows what else...

Back to real life. The design is sleek, but I can see some limitations with it. First is its wing span - its pretty small, witch means it cant carry a lot of weight and has to travel at high speeds. This is not really a drawback, but still if the landing gear cant properly retract on takeoff it will be guaranteed to crash thanks to the aerodynamic turbulence pushing the tail upwards and therefore making it nosedive in the runway. The same gos for landing - opening the landing gear bays will generate a lot of turbulence and possibly instability. The second thing is the large cockpit window (at least I'm assuming that is the black part). On high speeds (possibly exceeding march points) the pressure vortexes can crack or even shatter the glass as the pressure is not divided evenly - adopting the ST design could help. Also putting an ion generator at the front can reduce the pressure (this is experimental at this time tho). The third is the air intake(s) (I'm assuming there is another one at the other side) - they extend outwards to the direction of the plain. Its a common design used, but in high speeds the fuel/air mixture can get little too thin especially on high altitudes and the engine can stall. As its a single engine flayer, this can be problematic - it could be reduced by making the intakes the shape of an egg, so the airflow can be regulated without the need to regulate fuel intake.

This design can have a lot of promise and could be adopted to near earth orbit/orbital flight. We are just an step away from actual commercial spaceflight technology. Anyone have a warp drive / antigrav / shield / antimatter reactor plans lying on their desk? Care to share them? :)

PS! If the suggestions here will be taken account on improving the HyFish give some credit to the author also ;)

technorati tags:SmartFish, HyFish, StarTrek, Voyager, flight, technology

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