posted on Nov, 9 2015 @ 10:03 PM
a reply to:
Tripnman
Good point, loop around the star and have an onboard computer look for any planets to use in order to help slow the probe down.
It all depends how fast the probe is moving and if a gravitational capture is feasible as using the gravity to slow you down it need's to be slow
enough for a gravitational capture to be possible and remember it has been accelerating pretty much all the way if that is the case.
There is one advantage to constant acceleration, simulated gravity, if an array of these drives can create a thrust that is equivelent to 1G (far
above the test model but still) then the astronauts if it is manned will not suffer from bone weakening and circulatory conditions related to
prolonged exposure to low gravity and so will be as fit at the other end of the trip as they were at the start of it (assuming the craft is large
enough to accomodate active excercise etc).
Also there is closer to home applications, instead of blimp's imagine future EM drive based technology's (if they can ramp up the output/relative
thrust enough) used to hold stationary platforms in the sky over sporting event's and also as a future alternative to dirty current engines, of course
it has a long way to go and other forms of potential pollution such as EM pollution have to be looked at first.
This is too important for everyone to stay the province only of space applications as it can indeed offer an alternate to many other sources of
kinetic motion that we use in our day to day lives and that will be essential to the future generations (if we live past the next hundred years).
Military application could see this put out of the public domein for decades as they use it to build silent and stealthy helicopter replacements
without moving parts.
emdrive.com... emdrive.com...
hackaday.com... Well this article is dated as we now know it does
work
www.wired.co.uk... pluto in 18 months.
edit on 9-11-2015 by LABTECH767 because: (no reason given)