The Greatest Mechanical invention

Wouldn't it be just our luck to get to that new planet just before it was struck by the astereoid

Best regards

Terry

Bear in mind that the nearest cluster of stars is 7 Light Years away, that is at the speed of light, it would take 7 years to get there !

Now I like to travel fast but never yet at the speed of light so lets say half the speed of light, thats 14 years to get there.

Still not possible so lets say one sixteenth the speed of light which is 112 years, thats over one generation in space.

Then you get there and find there are no habitable planets, what then ?

The logistics are enormous, food and water and prolonged time in space would wreak havoc on the human body.

I think I will just watch Star Trek.

Clive

Gentlemen

All very interesting but can I ask you to consider the" Hinge" and its derivatives, useful for transferring power, repetitive location etc, also used a lot in the greatest mechanical device ever devised

THE HUMAN BODY

Dick

Crows modify plant materials to use as different tools. Lots of research on new Caledonian crows. they even worked out how to do the Aesop's fable trick.

Another transatlantic navigation tail - my stepson agreed to crew a yacht from Grenada to UK via Azores. Not far out of the Azores a strom took out the autorudder so the two of them had to work alternate watches 24 hours a day. Lost all steerage in the channel and nearly got run own by a Tanker and escorted in by the coastguard!

Neil

"Then you get there and find there are no habitable planets, what then ?

The logistics are enormous, food and water and prolonged time in space would wreak havoc on the human body.

I think I will just watch Star Trek.

Clive"

Re: no habitable planets - I just hope you could get a decent coffee and a bacon sandwich for under $10 there....

Re: wreaking havoc on the body - can't be much worse than driving from Toronto Ontario to Winnipeg Manitoba in February.... Winnipeg in Feb reminds me of the description of the planet Pluto anyway, but Pluto might be a bit warmer...

Re Star Trek - I never got why, if they could beam down to a planet, why not just beam to the next galaxy they were going to, and save the hassle and elapsed time of warp drive?

One of them replicators they had on Star Trek would be mighty handy for making the wheels and brake gear for a 7 1/4" gauge 4-8-8-4 locomotive though.

JD

the printing press, without it information about most things wouldn't have been made so widely available.

My favourite is the sewing machine just about one of the most useful pieces of machinery every invented, why? cos it keeps the wife happy for hours on end.

Bear in mind that the nearest cluster of stars is 7 Light Years away, that is at the speed of light, it would take 7 years to get there !

Now I like to travel fast but never yet at the speed of light so lets say half the speed of light, thats 14 years to get there

------

The weirdest bit is:

As a pioneer you will be on the 14 year trip... risking everything

5 years later warp drive is invented

You arrive at planet A and it's already colonised because everyone arrived en-masse seven years ago...

Edited By Ady1 on 25/10/2012 01:11:27

Like that last one Ady1, my guess is that the interplanetry travel will take a number of generations, maybe if it were possible to colinize the moon, it could be moved out of orbit, and used as the transport vehicle, it at least would have a small amount of gravity. Never say never! Ian S C

sorry double click Ian S C

Edited By Ian S C on 26/10/2012 11:31:37

0.5 C , 7 light years ... 14 years at home -----------> 12 years for traveler.

Hi Ady1

Guess you have read Larry Niven among other SF writers.

There was a Stephen Appleby cartoon about "planetary repairmen". They turn up to apolluted Earth and announce everything is too far gone and they'll have to reboot the system. "Great, we'll get a second chance. No more pollution, clean air, clean water..." The reptile leader replies "Who says you'll evolve again?".

Neil

As this is getting fanciful, anyone remember the Queen lyrics "write your letters in the sand for the day I take your hand in the land that our grandchildren knew"?

They may be a pomp-rock band, but they know a thing or two about relativity!

Neil

Hi Gray,

Most of them but the real famous one was Star Wars when Alec Guiness got all serious,  But I think Star Trek got there first.

Regards

T

Edited By Terryd on 26/10/2012 22:24:34

Probably E E Doc Smith..[Triplanetary and Lensman series]

Hi Jeff,

I reckon it was because they couldn't get the USS Enterprise under one of those humming light beams on the Transporter stage . That would have required the use of a de-bigulator.

Hi Jason,

I must get out my E E Doc Smith collections again, I used to love those,

Regards

Terry

Edited By Terryd on 27/10/2012 08:09:25

Of course all these Tele transporters have now bee superceded by Wormholes ! Stargates are the thing now where as long as there is another stargate you can travel to that planet ( Tounge in cheek)

Einsteins theory that space is curved means you can step across from one part to another by some means. fanciful thinking. But , then again the theory about parallel universes has merit.

So I nominate the umbrella as a worthwhile mechanical invention as my wife will not go anywhere without one so it must be important, surely.

Clive

> E.E. 'Doc' Smith

I grew up  on a diet of that and the yellow-jacketed Gollancz books from the library.

"Lambent beams of violet flame licking over the hull of the black teardrops of space"

Best of all his self-parody as 'Sibley White'(?) - Quadgop the Mercotan with his xithil-like claws!

I even built a 'projector' out of blue card and silver foil.

I always wanted to be Nils Bergenholm - Worzel for Ever!

Neil

Edited By Stub Mandrel on 27/10/2012 19:19:47