@velvetwoodstock: The Event Horizon! She's come back.

Klappstuhl

Can we make the radio waves that propel the ship jam to Jimmy Hendrix? Spread the love across the universe while exploring.

whatnot22

Well, as long as they have a working warp core by 2063, it's all gravy, baby.

bobojuice

You had me at 'plasma rocket' and 'space', but then you went and added 'nozzles made of magnetic fields' and 'nuclear reactor'. I need to go change my pants.

Gann

SWEET! These things are freaking quick too...

Log1c

@velvetwoodstock: It will be once that add that 'nuclear reactor' aspect to it.

Hiphopopotamus

Designed by a former astronaut who's flowing in the shuttle seven times

Is he flowing because he was melted by the plasma?

smcallah

sweet alpha centauri i'm coming closer to you.

krom

They should strap a few of these to the international space station itself and put IT in lunar orbit. Use it as a stepping off point for lunar exploration/colonization.

Gregpooh

when are they gonna get to mars?

urbanturban666

I'm quite sure that involving properties of black holes will be absolutely safe. *Sarcasm*

velvetwoodstock

The Hadron Collider creates a worm-hole on Earth and then the Plasma Rocket creates a black-hole in space, causing a anti-matter field that will finally solve the universal problem of bad hair day. I can't wait.

This sounds like a great concept, but I admit that it reads more like a Star Trek TNG episode to me.

Monty

Jimi Hendrix! Sorry, my mental spell check doesn't kick in until noon. Or 4 cups of coffee, whichever comes first.

whatnot22

@whatnot22: FAIL. JIMI Hendrix. get it right.

the_amazing_doug

It took Apollo three days to get to Lunar orbit and this marvel of new technology will get a ship there in six months?

tomholiday

Hope there's a backup ion propulsion with that plasma too. Don't want to be stuck in space without some redundancy cuz it's going to be a while before rescue arrives. Personally, I'll wait till the warp engine gets back online and operational.

jabber

@velvetwoodstock: @Hiphopopotamus: I've actually read up a bit on plasma rockets/been talked to about them by someone working on them (VASIMR). It's not like they haven't already done test firings of the principle. I got to see the machine that they used for testing, though it was at the time running the pump to bring it back to a vacuum (the buggers only work in relative vacuums, or else things get explode-y pretty fast).

I've no idea how any of it relates to black holes, however...

Reilaos~

@Log1c:
Last I read, is that plasma engines provide almost no thrust.... but since the can be lit and run constantly, speed builds up in space fairly quick due to the lack of drag.

Just think that if you were able to push 1 G for a year you could be nearly at the speed of light!

:0

aec007

Too bad they didn't think about linking the black holes created by the LHC and the plasma engine. They could throw M&M's into space, from europe.

Lodlaiden_

Too bad they didn't think far enough ahead to have the blank holes link and just throw stuff through the LHC black hole and have it show up in space.

Lodlaiden_

@tomholiday: "It took Apollo three days to get to Lunar orbit and this marvel of new technology will get a ship there in six months?"

Yes. On nothing but solar power. Re-usable up to 6 times. (which I take to mean it can make the round trip 6 times before the catalyst or whatever the radio waves react with is defunct.)

If they add a power source greater than just solar, like a reactor, they can do it in 39 days.

shawn_dude

I wish before I die, hopefully around 2070-2080, that I get to see space ship and all that goodies from Star Trek or the worst from Battlestar Galactica.

sega8800

@tomholiday: Yep. It's slow because it's designed to be CHEAP. It's a tug boat.

I think the "black hole" reference is pure hyperbole: this uses plasma jets. Black holes can also create plasma jets. Of course, there are probably electrical discharges within materials falling into a black hole, so I guess a light bulb also uses black hole physics.

gunnk

"follow the same principles that scientists believe govern black holes. "
I'm pretty sure that gravity governs black holes. Actually I'm pretty sure that gravity is the King God Emperor of black holes. Not sure how gravity govern plasma rockets?

ninjamurf

people miss the point speed isnt everything ... fuel is the biggie... we cant go to MARS on f*cking rocketfuel, we'd need a tank the size of the moon to get their (sarcasm) ....

hence the idea currently for slower but more effective nearly limitless sources, such as this and the solar sail ideas....

also this is based off solar generation not a massive nuclear reactor that would get us their 100x faster using the same technology.

personall i dont care if it takes 6 months, as long as the first shipment back is 1 ton of HELIUM-3 to power the f*cking world... i mean jesus christ the moon has enough helium-3 to power the earth for well... forever probably yet, we havent gone their to get any, i mean we already know earth has barely hence why its not feasible as a clean, safe source of energy for the world, but hell if you can have 6 month regular shipments of the stuff from the moon of a ton or so then screw the big "energy crysis" just start prepping for helium3 usage and get the damn supply route ready to the moon!

phantam

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't plasma the liquid component of blood? If the rocket propels itself through plasma harvested during flight, isn't there the danger of overly anemic astronauts unable to complete their mission?

frigg

@frigg: You're wrong.

You're welcome. That's why we're here. Or perhaps it will be thts wh? wr hr. Crps

ps61318

@velvetwoodstock: Gravity is a property of black holes. WE SHOULD ABOLISH THE USE GRAVITY!

Kharnellius

@k-mac: at least it explains why manuals that came with early model Plasma TVs often referred to burn-in as "coagulation" or "scabbing of picture."

frigg

@frigg: Makes me not want to open a plasma TV. yak

Kaiser-Machead's WALL-E fetish

I'll take 2 please.

Lazarus511

@phantam: There's some debate about the actual effectiveness of Helium-3 as a supposedly clean fusion fuel. I mean, it might work fine, but as with most things, it probably also wouldn't live up to the hype in any case- especially since it'll probably still produce a fair amount of neutron-soaked reactor shielding to dispose of, even if its not as much as some of the other processes. And even if you did get the fuel, you notice we're having a lot of trouble producing a sustained and stable fusion reaction, much less a reactor that even makes break-even.

Anyway, in regards to the plasma thrusters, I understand that high efficiency space thrusters are the key to making space economical for industrial and other civilian uses, but the 12 year old wannabe Space Ranger inside of me still finds it hard to get very excited about any space engine that wouldn't potentially allow me to cruise between the planets with 3 Gs of constant acceleration strapped to my ass.

I Think We're Property

@the_amazing_doug: "get it right or we will feed you your own testicles on a platter!" Geez, man, chill. The guy is dead; he won't mind.

ps61318

@phantam: Won't helium-3 make the reactors, ya know, talk funny? Like one of the chipmunks or something?

ps61318

This will be able to cut the trip to mars so it is only 2 months!

peetar

Behold! I can direct my plasma at you, thusly, and I will head off in this direction, thusly.

trek13945

but whens the orbital elevator coming?

kitsuneconundrum

What about ion rockets? Is ion propulsion more advanced and sophisticated then plasma rockets? All this talk about ion propulsion I thought that it would have been the next step for interstellar travel.

Daimyo Nintendo

um what if this works too well. Shouldn't they not test it out on the INTERNATIONAL space station. I mean what if this thing blows the station out of orbit.

jakeyjohn1

Wow! This is truly amazing to me. I'm glad to hear some good news like this.

I always wondered why we had nuclear power subs, but no nuclear power space ships. So its good to see were finally catching up in that sense.

I look forward to the second generation. Generation 1 sounds like it needs to be skipped. Actually G1 sounds like it would be beneficial in the long term.

-Core-

@Daimyo Nintendo:

i think it's too slow to get up to speed, could be a reason

br4nd0n

@aec007: Pretty sure that's the idea behind the Revelation Space tech...

ceriphim