Stephen Hawking explains how we could reach Mars in less than an HOUR and Pluto in days

[weltweit]

Stephen Hawking explains how we could reach Mars in less than an HOUR and Pluto in days

Stephen Hawking says it could be possible one day for humans to reach Mars in less than an hour.

The world-renowned physicist explained that the human race - much like Star Trek - has to “boldly go where no one has gone before” if it wants to continue on for another million years, he said on Sunday.

According to Prof Hawking, the world will become severely crowded by 2600, when power consumption could turn the planet into a sizzling fire ball.
...

This could put Elon Musk out of business

Sorry for the msn link.

 

[twentythreedom]

Stephen Hawking not Steven Hawkin

 

[weltweit]

Stephen Hawking not Steven Hawkin

Ta

 

[twentythreedom]

That's better

 

[weltweit]

That's better

But no comment on the substance of the article twentythreedom - it does involve a sail

 

[twentythreedom]

But no comment on the substance of the article twentythreedom - it does involve a sail

It is an interesting read. And yes I approve of the sail

 

[weltweit]

Unfortunately, on re-reading earlier, I see he does not propose sending people but instead a nano probe with just small cameras and sensors and things, so Elon Musk's rocketship may still be viable!

 

[teuchter]

I got to the bit where they used miles per hour as a unit for acceleration and decided it wasn't worth wasting any more of my life reading that dreadful article.

 

[bemused]

At the risk of being pedantic - I fucking hate the trend newspapers have capitalising words in a headline. They assume the reader is a moron and can't read a whole sentence.

 

[weltweit]

I got to the bit where they used miles per hour as a unit for acceleration and decided it wasn't worth wasting any more of my life reading that dreadful article.

I have had a bit of a google for a better story and looked at www.hawking.org.uk but so far I can't find one. I bet there is one though.

 

[alan_]

At the risk of being pedantic - I fucking hate the trend newspapers have capitalising words in a headline. They assume the reader is a moron and can't read a whole sentence.

you ARE not pedantic i fucking hate IT too

 

[teuchter]

I have had a bit of a google for a better story and looked at www.hawking.org.uk but so far I can't find one. I bet there is one though.

Breakthrough Starshot - Wikipedia

 

[bubblesmcgrath]

At the risk of being pedantic - I fucking hate the trend newspapers have capitalising words in a headline. They assume the reader is a moron and can't read a whole sentence.

Surely just the tabloids?

 

[WouldBe]

Day trip to Mars.

 

[bubblesmcgrath]

Day trip to Mars.

Yeah ...
Finally we could go inside a Mars Bar....

 

[kabbes]

At the risk of being pedantic - I fucking hate the trend newspapers have capitalising words in a headline. They assume the reader is a moron and can't read a whole sentence.

It's not a trend, it's an American thing. The Yank papers have always done it, I think.

 

[T & P]

Going back to the science, is it theoretically possible to increase a ship’s speed through a series of nuclear blasts? Detonate a nuke a distance behind the ship, let the shockwave accelerate your ship, then repeat process?

 

[weltweit]

Going back to the science, is it theoretically possible to increase a ship’s speed through a series of nuclear blasts? Detonate a nuke a distance behind the ship, let the shockwave accelerate your ship, then repeat process?

Seems a bit wasteful, 99.9% of the energy would be going in the wrong directions.

 

[T & P]

Seems a bit wasteful, 99.9% of the energy would be going in the wrong directions.

Well it’s always going to be a tricky one as you’d want to be reasonably far away and the explosion would naturally follow a spherical pattern. But given that the world has a combined arsenal of more than ten thousand nukes at least, what better way to dispose of some of them?

I wonder what speed could be achieved be for a craft travelling at the bog standard 60,000 kph after the usual gravity slingshots which then detonated a succession of nukes, each explosion propelling the craft faster.

 

[NoXion]

Going back to the science, is it theoretically possible to increase a ship’s speed through a series of nuclear blasts? Detonate a nuke a distance behind the ship, let the shockwave accelerate your ship, then repeat process?

Yes: Project Orion (nuclear propulsion) - Wikipedia

To prove the concept they even built a test craft that briefly flew through the atmosphere, that used conventional explosives:

Seems a bit wasteful, 99.9% of the energy would be going in the wrong directions.

The Casaba Howitzer design would improve that:

It's basically a nuclear shaped charge.

Well it’s always going to be a tricky one as you’d want to be reasonably far away and the explosion would naturally follow a spherical pattern. But given that the world has a combined arsenal of more than ten thousand nukes at least, what better way to dispose of some of them?

I wonder what speed could be achieved be for a craft travelling at the bog standard 60,000 kph after the usual gravity slingshots which then detonated a succession of nukes, each explosion propelling the craft faster.

Considering that Carl Sagan reckoned that nuclear pulse propulsion spacecraft could get up to 10% the speed of light, I don't think gravity slingshots would add much more on top of that.

 

[iamwithnail]

You'd want to fire your nuclear pulses at/going into the Periapse, have you learned nothing playing Kerbal?