Science of Avatar: Starships

[Eagle1Division2]

@LouistheHedgehog

@SimKoning

@RedwingApache

See what you can find on "David H. Froning Rotation into higher-dimensional space"

Requires no huge amounts of exotic materials, no huge amounts of energy or anything. Just a means by which to manipulate the underlying forces behind mass/inertia/gravity, which we're now starting to understand is the Higgs field, from LHC experiments. So it's not really that far off, just need to manipulate the Higgs field.

The physics are complicated. Look it up :P

[SimKoning]

@Eagle1Division2 Thanks, I'll look it up : )

[LouistheHedgehog]

You actually CAN travel at what would appear to be a FTL velocity without causing time dialiation problems. All you need to do is create a gravity distortion in front of the ship. The distortion will attract the ship, but will always be the same distance from it, causing the ship and the distortion to accelerate through space as long as the device is running. However, if you do this through gravitomagnetism, the magnetic field would be HUGE! Bigger than anything yet produced in any labratory.

[SimKoning]

@LouistheHedgehog You are about half right. I think you are referring to something like the Alcubierre warp metric. There are a few different versions, with different metrics, but none of them, as they found out two years ago, would allow FTL travel. The reason is that at FTL speeds, the warp bubble becomes unstable and produces Hawking radiation which would reduce the ship to plasma. I can provide links to the paper's abstract if you like.

[LouistheHedgehog]

@SimKoning How about this? Instead of creating a timespace dip in front, and a timespace mound in back, how about instead creating a swirling timespace effect instead? This is done through gravitomagnetism. WIll that become unstable? Will that cause Hawking radiation? Any questions?

[RobertVollrath]

This is one of my favorite videos on You Tube. Very well done. Where did you get the split ring design "warp ship" at 0:53 & 1:06 ? The Atomic Rockets website is great and you included some of my favorite designs from that site in the slideshow.

[SimKoning]

@RobertVollrath Thank you.

[lanunselat]

half of the problem will be to overcome earth gravity.

[Helge129]

@lanunselat Uh...what? Antimatter rockets would have no problem at all with that, neither would photon sails.

[lanunselat]

@Helge129 i mean, to send all those bulky and heavy starship parts from the production centre on the ground all the way to the orbit. Until we device a way to send payload into orbit on the cheap, then starship is but a dream.

[Helge129]

@lanunselat The Valkyries seem to be cheap.

[Membrane556]

For a realistic space fighter look at the Starfury from B5 which has thrusters all over it and flew backwards and sideways etc.

The re imagined BSG did at least have the Vipers fly properly in space for some scenes such as having one turn sides ways and backwards while firing.

[SimKoning]

@Membrane556 I love that design ; ). My dad actually has the scale model kit.

[RedwingApache]

My objections are political rather than technical of course.

I reckon the political implications of suddenly being able to generate and use antimatter in large quantities would be fertile ground for a science fiction novel.

An accidental nuclear detonation would kill maybe 100,000 people. Horrendous but not world threatening - thus we accept this risks. Antimatter on that scale could kill billions in a fraction of a second. I can imagine a few concerns about using it !

[lanunselat]

@RedwingApache Not just kill billions. Any antimatter explosion in the amount needed for travelling to the nearest star would've signal the end of all life on earth.

[SimKoning]

@RedwingApache Plus, a spec of dirt would cause a massive explosion if it collided with the ship at 70% c. It would need some kind of shield to minimize the risk, but it seems to lack anything of the sort in the movie.

[RedwingApache]

The Venture Star is indeed a realistic spacecraft if you can get past the idea of storing 200 tonnes of antimatter for years. If this ship crashed into a planet it would devastate a large part of it with an explosion 100,000 times greater than the largest hydrogen bomb ever detonated.

But it will never happen as shown. A private corporation would never, ever be trusted by governments to handle power that could destroy earth - WMD's are and will always be state controlled.

[AnteyPL]

@RedwingApache

Guess what - so just like now you have private contractors in military, you'd have state-employeed engineers, technicians and security aboard comercially operated spacecraft.

[SimKoning]

@RedwingApache There are a slew of other problems with the design: the "string" that pulls the crew module is waaaay too short (the crew would be cooked by radiation) and the heat radiator panels and rockets would almost certainly melt. That being said, it is the most realistic starship ever depicted on the big screen as far as I know.

[OrionIISagan190]

@SimKoning Excellent video, I liked it and favorited it. I give your video an A+ and 5 stars; and in a one to ten rating, I give this video an eleven.  I rate this video as excellent! I have visited the Atimic Rockets website that you have linked in the description box many times before I stumbled across this video.

[SimKoning]

@OrionIISagan190 thanks.

[jemielnic]

I agree with the physics, even i if don't know some of them, but what about artistic licence?

[SimKoning]

@jemielnic I have no problem with that, the 'rule of cool is damn' important'. I just like hard SF because it's easier to suspend disbelief.

[Washu1973]

2:33 Ludicrous speed!

[LouistheHedgehog]

2:38 and on.

There actually are fighters today that can move like they're in space while still in the atmosphere. Look up designs like X31, Su30, Su35, Su37, Mig35, and F22. It's something called thrust vectoring. I also heard that the Xwing uses that too.

[SimKoning]

@LouistheHedgehog Yeah I know, I actually have a book on fighter jets. Some of the next gen fighters are insane; they are like something out of science fiction!

[PlaneAU]

You seem to be going on the science that we have today, why don't you look up projects like anti gravity and the alcumbierre. If the alcumbierre drive can be made (it's a scientific possibility) then people may be able to go faster than light by slipping into some other dimension or wave.

[SimKoning]

@PlaneAU Actually FTL warp drive is almost certainly impossible. You can look up the papers on the subject. If you have a hard time finding them let me know, and I can provide links.

[chingchombuela]

i like atomic rockets too, the give me good ideas 4 my designs.

[chingchombuela]

ur rite, but it is okay to enjoy fiction:)

[SimKoning]

@chingchombuela Believe me, I'm a HUGE fan of stuff like Halo, Mass Effect etc.. I just wish the video game and movie space opera genre would catch up with its literary counterpart in terms of realism. I find realistic space opera way more strange, interesting and thought provoking.

[theinsane102]

awesome! Keep at it, kid.

[xXxParodyFanxXx]

what about the collectors ship off of mass effect 2(video game)

and i would like to build the shuttle off of avatar theone in the beginning of the

video and the dragon assault ship and on the movie 2012 the arks.

[panther201787]

Actually FTL is theoretically possible. E=MC2 says that an object can't accelerate passed the speed it says nothing about the speed of light being impossible to achieve.

[SimKoning]

@panther201787 There is a loophole in the form of wormholes, but an advanced civilization would probably need to create a pair of wormholes mouths in one location, before transporting one to a target destination at less than the speed of light; that's why I mention wormholes in the video. They would basically work like interstellar subway tunnels. FTL warp drive seems to be out of the question, but STL warp drives that work as reactionless drives are still possible.

[BMWM3GTRLOVER]

yes Babylon 5 has fighters. The Starfury's however don't bank like a Mustang or Spitfire. They can spin around and fly backwards. I'll refer you to some vids of B5 battles if you like. One of the Earth ships also has a gravity generator that isn't based off magnetism or some star trek system. It actually rotates. The B5 station itself rotates at 60mph.

[SimKoning]

@BMWM3GTRLOVER I know, I always liked those designs, especially the fighter with the multidirectional thrusters. The only problem is that the pilots would have to suspend themselves in water to avoid being crushed to death by g forces.

[BMWM3GTRLOVER]

your forgetting the earth ships from Babylon 5. There are some bits about them that are true to physics... some

[SimKoning]

@zenoparodie What I read was that the researchers at CERN came up with some anomalous measurements that haven't been replicated by others. Until it has been duplicated by others, it will remain dubious. A single experimenter is never enough in science.

[Elitetank87]

actually they discovered you can go faster than light. At a patical accelorator lab the test results blasted atoms to 1.2 times the speed of light. They are not sure if it is correct, but if it is, it reverses everything we know about physics. Look into it.

[genefury75]

if i tried to put a hyperdrive on the space shuttle well then he's right

[SimKoning]

@genefury75 I don't understand what you mean...

[genefury75]

he is wrong dead wrong

[zenoparodie]

sadly for you neutrinos go faster than light

[BatusaiJack]

great explanation on the realistics of space.

[rojman123]

Come on, the Yamato spaceship looked like a boat...because it IS a battleship. :)

[velmuvelho]

You sound rather angry, at least in the beginning of the video. SimKoning, will it make me a bad person if I choose to write soft sci fi?

[WILLISUKE]

3 words. COOL STORY BRO

[Joe35983]

everything you say about space travel totally makes sense but maybe in a thousand years (if humans are still around) our spaceships will have "Gravity Plating" & "Inertial Dampeners" because Technology, Science, and our understanding of the Laws of Physics are ALWAYS CHANGING

[MrDriftzz]

you are destroying my childhood.

[Eagle1Division2]

Oh, awesome vid btw. I'm tired of seeing Space Opera type misconceptions filling virtually every video game, book, movie, TV show, etc. etc. etc. etc and ETC.

I want cool sci-fi, not magic handwavium! Even magic/fantasy I can tolerate to some degree, because it's not pretending that it's possible or real science!

If someone's going to make sci-fi, they can at least do the effort of doing a little research. Even a tiny bit would drastically change a lot of things, and make it so much cooler!

[AgrivatedKillah]

@Eagle1Division2 I agree whole heartedly.

The thing that really interest me is knowing that it could become a reality..and thats what makes sci fi so awesome. 

[Eagle1Division2]

1:10 is actually a bit off. The whole reason the alcuberrie drive works is because the vessels DON'T go faster than light. They warp space in a way so that they can start at Earth and be 10 Ly away in less than 10 years, but that's because they've warped space, so the actual space the vessel had traveled through is less than 10 LY. Sort of like space is water, and you're parting the water in front of you, so it goes around you instead of you going through it. You don't exceed "c" locally.

[noelsoong777]

There is a video game called killzone where the space ships are vertical like a high rise when docked.

[SimKoning]

@noelsoong777 Cool

[baryon15]

it almost seems you copied parts of your lesson from atomic rockets

[SimKoning]

@baryon15 I did, that was the whole point. I e-mailed Winchell Chung and asked him if I could basically do a video version of some of the things he covers on his page. The writers of Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 actually used his page as a reference, and they name drop him in the game. Basically, this was my small attempt to help make people more aware of his work. He actually has a whole section on the Venture Star from Avatar because it's the most realistic movie starship ever done.

[baryon15]

@SimKoning Oh cool, I didn't know that.

[JohnTraviss]

@SimKoning We do not EYEBALL it!

[SpockBorg5]

dude why do you bother watching sci-fi. you make the erroreneous assumption that science is going to remain static and humans will only have this current level of tech available to them.

[SimKoning]

@SpockBorg5 No, I'm making the not so erroneous assumption that the laws of physics will almost certainly not change. And an *antimatter rocket* isn't exactly current tech.

[SpockBorg5]

@SimKoningdon't think u read my comment carefully. i never said laws of physics would change

you're twisting my words. as for laws changing, there researchers out there who are beginning to think that light barrier is not so absolute. even einstein probably would not have discounted the concept of hyperspace.

as for antimatter, yes not current, actually old concept early 20th. century. people back then actully managed to create it despite tech of time, probably not listen to people like you

[SimKoning]

@SpockBorg5 Right, and the only *remotely* possible loophole to get around the the problem of the speed of light would involve something like a wormhole, since they are now pretty sure waprdrive simply would not work in any real sense. Actually going faster than light would also send you back in time, so really, a wormhole is most likely the only option, and even that would require an insane amount of energy/mass to create.

[SimKoning]

I should also point out that we knew air existed since the dawn of our species, but you wouldn't exactly call an airplane stone age technology would you? The ability to produce positrons in tiny, tiny amounts, and an *antimatter rocket* are not even remotely close in terms of technology. We're not even sure if an antimatter rocket would work yet...

[SingularlyDatarific]

The First Rule about Rules: You can break rules, but ONLY if you understand what they are and they still convey what you need to convey, and the new rule replacing it is treated consistently.

Remember this when making stories, or else Engineering Majors will tear it to pieces.

[holgado33]

movies are suppose to be entertaining and educational in the way of moral lessons or themes..not boring

[SimKoning]

@holgado33 I don't find hard science fiction boring in the slightest...

[holgado33]

have a life......learn to live yourlife outside the laws.... this is why most nerds is annoying.. do you guys actually think that we care about all the stuff you just said....."lay your decks out properly" for gods sake... were not interested in making spaceships

[SimKoning]

@holgado33 Some do: believe it or not, there is a whole lot of science fiction *novels* out there that stick as close as they can to reality as a way to help with suspension of disbalief for their scientifically literate readers. I'm sure most WW2 movie fans would not like a movie in which the germans had magical powers.

[crossvariation]

I'm sure one day we will be able to go faster than light and have some sort of "inertia dampener" 100 years ago, we didn't believe in nuclear energy nor space flight, 120-200 years ago, people thought only a bird can fly. 600 years ago people thought the Earth was flat.

[crysis888]

What's the song during the slideshow?

[expo1111]

What a dork

[zenithomega19]

It's a very practical design, to be honest with you. Aside from the obvious limitations of developing efficient matter/antimatter fusion engines as well as the carbon nanotube rigging today, such a ship could theoretically be built within our lifetime.

Of course, the capital costs of building the ship would be ENORMOUS.

EDIT: Was referring, of course, to the ISV Venture Star.

[NelielTuOderswank]

Also note the engines are at the front of the Venture Star, pulling instead of pushing. Its much less stressful on a spacecraft to be pulled than pushed, just like how you can pull a rope, and it wont bend, but as soon as you push it, its going every which way but forward. The engines are also angled outward, so as to avoid irradiating the passengers from the matter/antimatter reactions involving superconductors.

[emerychandler]

well sir you are right, however aside from the warp drive there is an worm hole theory too. Also the space fightercraft could work using ram engines with scram jets but only those.

[davisgreen2020]

So fast acceleration can be over come by placing the crew in liquid like in the film "Event Horizon" ? Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clark´s 2001..Just showed what a masterful Sci-Fi film it is !!

[viicISrotcib]

the thing about fantasy is that it sometimes cannot get better than fact, I believe the day will come where swooping across the universe will be as simple and common as eating. If not the we should learn to preserve this planet and our existance indfinetly.

[SimKoning]

@viicISrotcib The sad reality is that everything suggests that we will never go faster than light. However, if a starship can be built that comes very close to the speed of light, it will, for all intents and purposes, amount to the same thing (in proper time). Humans will likely be much longer lived by the time we have starships too, so many of the problems with time may not really be problems at all. The hardest part will be building the rocket itself...

[viicISrotcib]

@SimKoning well neither you orI can really now what will happen, 40 years ago people thought we would have flying cars like the jetsons by the end of the millenium. we really cant say that there will be or will not be certain things in the future.

who knows, I'm intriged to find out!

[SimKoning]

@viicISrotcib Well stating that you can not go faster than light is similar to saying you can not have a circular square or that 2+2 can not equal 5; the speed of light is very fundamental and is not simply an engineering problem. Traversable wormholes *might* be possible if negative energyy can be created in any useable way, but that is not really FTL and would most likely require transporting the wormhole to a destination at slower than light speed before you can use it as a real shortcut.

[SimKoning]

For a good example of what realistic space opera is like, googe "Orion's Arm Project". It's pretty interesting. 

[tayaxx]

@SimKoning

i dont know much about this stuff but could it be posible to manipulate space to triger a wormhole anyware

[brizihe]

@SimKoning people thought the world was flat before too. After a ridiculous amount of time (suppose humans live that long), our understanding of the laws of physics would change entirely. The 3 laws of thermodynamics are already being modified.

[Jimbob8971]

@SimKoning well i have news for you back in the 17th century going faster than the speed of sound was thought impossible...... well look where we are now. my point is that even Einstein can't predict how fast we will be going in one hundred years time because lets face it we all know how bad scientists are at predicting things. in my opinion i don't think there is a limit to speed but thats just me.

[SimKoning]

@Jimbob8971 There is a HUGE difference between breaking the "sound barrier" and violating causality (the speed of light).

[SimKoning]

I should be more clear. Traveling faster than light would result in time travel.

[44excalibur]

And by the way, isn't space supposed to be at absolute zero on the Kelvin scale, which is as cold as it gets? The guys on Apollo 13 got pretty cold out there after they shut everything down. If space is a great insulator, how come their temperature didn't stay a constant?

[SimKoning]

@44excalibur No it's not, it doesn't have a temp because it is vacuum. Heat energy is lost/radiated via infrared light. As energy is radiated out in the form of electromagnetic energy, the temperature drops. In order to keep the ship from overheating and turning into vapor you would need radiator panels (hence the name). Space is not cold, or hot... it's nothing.

[44excalibur]

@SimKoning Well according to what I've read, the temperature of space is approximately 2.275 Kelvin, just 3 degrees above absolute zero. Temperature is the energy of the molecules in it. It has to do with the density of the molecules, which in turn helps determine how often they run into one another. If they don’t run into one another, they never really lose their initial energy. Space is a vacuum, so there's not much chance of molecules running into each other.

[44excalibur]

@SimKoning If we were to take a random molecule in space, say one that is part of the solar winds, and estimate its temperature, it would probably be around a million or more degrees Kelvin. That’s because this molecule hasn’t been bumping into things to get to the temperature it naturally wants to be at – what is called its "equilibrium." Scientists talk about 2.725 as the "average" temp of space, meaning "Cosmic Background Radiation" which is the energy still left over from the Big Bang.

[44excalibur]

@SimKoning Temperature measures the energy per "degree of freedom" (i.e. way something can move) of whatever molecules happen to be around. So, it it becomes so cold that the molecules stop all together, then this is the "absolute zero" temperature.If we put a thermometer in darkest space, with absolutely nothing around, it would first have to cool off. Once it cooled off, it would read 2.7 Kelvin. This is because of the "3 degree microwave background radiation." This is what I've read.

[SimKoning]

@44excalibur Go to the website I provided, it's all explained in detail complete with physics equations. You kind typed more stuff than I really I have time to respond to =P. In short, like I said, space is not cold or hot, it's nothing. Things IN space can be either cold or hot depending on their proximity to a heat source, but there is a reason why they use vacuum chambers as insulators.

[44excalibur]

It's okay, though. I've once heard that trying to predict the future is "a mug's game" and that doing so is seeing through a glass darkly. We can only make predictions based on the curent state of science and technology. And by the time we have the technology, and more importantly the money to build all of these types of ships, who knows if these "realistic" designs you've shown us won't seem as silly as old "flying machine" designs from centuries ago seem to us today?

[44excalibur]

I've seen artists conceptions of realistic spaceships years ago, using the same principles you've mentioned. The only problem? They require so much effort from both the technology and the humans involved that no one would realistically want to travel in them while "suspended in fluid" or having thousands of years pass on Earth while they remain ageless. It is higly impractial for humans to travel this way, and they would probably decide to remain home and not bother with space travel at all.

[SimKoning]

@44excalibur You have to keep in mind that humans thousands, or even hundreds of years from now will probably be a lot different, and could end up being more machine than meat.

[44excalibur]

@SimKoning And we will have flying cars and moving sidewalks by the year 2000. There have been many such predictions that have proven not only false, but impractial and imcompatible with human nature.

[SimKoning]

@44excalibur Actually we do have flying cars now, they just approved the first one. We also have moving walkways at airports. A better example would have been strong AI, which we may never have, or we may develope in it the next 100 years, it's too early to tell. Regarding your above points, you make it sound worse than it would be (assuming the tech keeps up). It wouldn't be "thousands" of years, it would be decades. Given advances in genetics, humans will likely live much longer as well.

[44excalibur]

@SimKoning Yeah, and those skycars cost about a million a pop. We're a long ways away from The Jetsons. I can see us stem-celling ourselves into a race of genetically engineered superhumans, but I don't see the human race trading in flesh for machinery, giving up what it means to be human. It's okay for academics and intellectuals to amuse themselves with notions of humanity becoming a race of cyborg Mr. Spocks, but humans are a passionate species too addicted to flesh to ever abandon it.

[SimKoning]

@44excalibur I tend to agree with you there. I can actually see laws being passed to prevent AI above a certain level being built for those reasons. Mass Effect and other modern Sci Fi novels have touched on this problem quite a bit.

[44excalibur]

I already knew about the concept of a spacecraft with the floors being perpendicular to the axis of thrust in order to generate gravity for a long time now. Arthur C. Clarke wrote about such a design in his novel 2061: odyssey three. The only problem is you would have to maintain thrust for the duration of the entire flight which would expend fuel. And wouldn't you have to stay in one direction without manuvering too much so the ride doesn't get too bouncy?

[LackeysLack]

@44excalibur

This is a good point. You have "gravity" only as long as the ship is accelerating in the proper direction. Once at a constant velocity, you lose your "gravity".

Alternatively, what you can do is spin the ship perpendicular to it's path of travel once at a constant speed so that "gravity" points "out" like the classic doughnuts and ferris wheel designs.

[44excalibur]

@LackeysLack I know, that the centrifuge design seen in films like 2001: A Space Odyssey, although I'd prefer having a section of the ship with a centrifuge rather than having the entire spacecraft spinning throughout the entire voyage.

[44excalibur]

For the record, I believe the reason that some space fighters like the X-Wings from Star Wars or the Vipers from Battlestar Galactica are designed the way they are is because they were intended to function in both space and an atmosphere like the space shuttle.

[ParkourEh]

Space is cold.

It's fair to say that almost ALL ships found in scifi are meant for both space AND atmospheric flight. They need an orientation to account for gravity; where there's an up, down, left and right. Which is why they resemble "boats."

[ProphetTenebrae]

I'd also like to point out that while the Venture Star would NOT have required superluminal speeds... assuming travel times in the film are accurate... it was going maybe 0.85c as an average.

That's INSANE. Hope space doesn't contain anything that might hit them!

[SimKoning]

That's the reason why the ship has a huge mylar shield at one end. But you are right, space debri is a huge problem for a ship traveling at such high speeds.

[ProphetTenebrae]

Rule of cool is the only thing that matters to people designing ships.

Ah, fluids... Clarke used that in his Rama series... although, as I recall it was more to do with suspended animation that inertia.

I think the real issue is always that reality is something of a straitjacket for sci-fi writers.

Also, B5 made more concessions to things like inertia and space than most. Things still travelled at the speed of plot but that;s inevitable.

[GlueSniffer4Life]

6:22 is Discovery II (a tribute to Discovery from Space Odyssey) concept design shown by Stanley Borowski et al. in NASA research paper entitled:

Realizing "2001: A Space Odyssey": Piloted

Spherical Torus Nuclear Fusion Propulsion

(google it!)

[icebear1946]

One key word would be WEIGHT. You'd want the thing to be absolutely as light as possible. The bang-bang principle would apply on trips to near stars at least i.e. you'd want to be using all available power all of the time, and you'd want max possible acceleration at all times.

[SimKoning]

Close, it's not really weight but mass that's an issue, that is if you want to nit pick ; )

[icarcass]

Environment friendly spaceships: hydrogen fueled! Just kidding! Really nice video, i loved the spaceship in Avatar and the huge reflection of Pandora on it. I wonder how much of its crew were in cryosleep?

[kanjimasteryugi]

One science fiction series that you failed to mention on the ship design part is Larry Niven's Known Space series. In that series they use Fusion drives (for the most part, there are Bussard Ramjets in there too) to propel their ships around space. He goes into the fact that 1/2 way to the target planet the ship would have to be sitting on it's fusion flame, not being pushed by it. this is called "Turnover", and he mentions it like a phase of the travel itself.

[SimKoning]

I'm reading Ringworld ringt now actually ; )

[kanjimasteryugi]

That is awesome.

[Ramiromasters]

The star-ship in Avatar actually made me stop in Ooh! for a second because I totally believe it, even if it was for just a moment.

The movie was great but that 1 moment of total excitement pay for the whole movie, if power would had gone out right after I would had still come out nodding my head in approval.

Oh and you suck for not having the clip witch is what I was looking for :p

[EspenShampoo25]

but, how much cooler arent the unrealistic ones :D :D ?

[SimKoning]

Not much. Did you check out the website? The real science of rocket ships is pretty cool. There are LOTS of different designs too, and realistic space warfare is a trip.

[Quarrionn]

Cargo, outbound:

1. Universal object-manufacturing system (In-situ Stereolighography plant). This can produce large, complex objects from data describing their three-dimensional form and material composition. Using raw materials obtained on Pandora, construction and mining equipment far too large and massive to be shipped from Earth can be produced, along with any replacement parts that are needed.

[SimKoning]

Awesome thanks =) There is also a book out that serves a similar purpose. I really, really hope this movie gets people interested in the real science behind space travel, rockets, evolution, palentology etc...

[Quarrionn]

Pandorapedia is now live.

Propulsion: Two hybrid fusion/matter-antimatter engines. One photon sail. One fusion PME (Planetary Maneuvering Engine.) Beamed photon power from Earth for outward acceleration phase; ships hybrid fusion / matter-antimatter power for deceleration phase on approach to Pandora. Sequence reversed for return to Earth.

[MiokovicD]

To many things is based on science to forget that mass of machines on dig site is to high for transport so I am convinced that there is logical explanation for that.

[SimKoning]

I think it's still a bit of a stretch, but they would have to do what we will do when we build a base on the moon, which is build much of the hardware on site using material on the planet. That would explain the 25 year timespan that they have been on the planet. BTW James Cameron said he wants to do a novel to cover all the details that he wasn't able to cover in the movie.

[SimKoning]

have the game and it explains in great detail about the starships. The Venture star is not that only ship, there are actually 12 in all, and it uses a laser sail when accelerating and the antimatter engines while decelerating. The room temp superconductors also allow for a ship that doesn't need a massive cooling system for it's magnetic coils. So yeah, you were right, he did take all that into account =)

[MiokovicD]

Glad to hear that. I am still hoping that you will make video about moons of gas giants. ;)

[SimKoning]

Hey I just posted a video about the moons

[SimKoning]

I will. I just haven't had alot of time and my computer has been stupid lately. BTW if you rent the game it explains everything about the Alpha Centauri system. For example the reason the air is unbreathable is because of the all the hydrogen sulfide gas from the volcanoes that erupt all the time because of tidal forces. Also the moon has a massive magnetosphere which protects it from radiation. Radiation is still a real danger on the planet though. Jim worked with NASA before so don't worry ; )

[Quarrionn]

It's hard to believe that every part of the outpost on Pandora was transported there and maintained by starships. The outpost buildings, refinery, bucket wheel excavator (which looks even bigger than the 13,500 ton Bagger 288), dump trucks, tree fellers, dropships, helicopters and amp suits are all either enormous or numerous. The whole undertaking is really quite extraordinary.

[SimKoning]

I guess there was an expedition 25 years before the movie takes place and the venture star has been making shuttle runs back and forth (at 90% the speed of light) to bring back the "unobtanium" on the return trips. According to Cameron the this is also why some of the Na'vi know broken English. The real problem for me is whether or not the ship is a Bussard ramjet, because that is pretty much the only rocket design that could reach those speeds.

[Quarrionn]

The method of propulsion of Venture Star is based on the 'Valkyrie' theoretical spacecraft. Current estimates indicate it requires 2200 tons of fuel for 100 tons of payload (0.92c). With such design constraints you would expect to see concessions made to the outpost to minimize weight but that doesn't appear to be the case. It seems the fuel problem has been filed under fiction to allow a more interesting outpost for the movie.

[SimKoning]

yeah a 100 tons is not a whole lot to work with. BTW I don't know why I forgot about the Valkrie concept, you're dead on. In fact the script says that it is is several kilometers long antimatter/fusion hybrid that is mostly engine and little else. The engine seems to be mounted in front with the crew section miles back. BTW thank you for telling me the rocket type, I'm reading back up on it right now =)

[SimKoning]

Yeah after watching that hardware featurette on IGN I can see that practically have a whole damn army there. For what they show in the movie to even be remotely possible they would have to build a factory on site and build everything over 25 years that they were there. No easy task for a single rocket ship and a few hundred people. But hey it's a movie... at least it's not Star Trek lol

[SimKoning]

There is the other possibility that much of the hardware was built on site over the 25 years that the base was there.

[mddawson1]

Also would the Star Wars Death Star have enough mass to exert a gravitational field on the X wing fighters?

[SimKoning]

LOL I have no idea, but it hardly matters, they were in a vacuum and would basically be fighting in free fall (orbit) which still means "zero gravity" which itself is a misconception. The whole death star concept was beyond stupid btw and the dog fighting would have been a waste of time, because they could have simply accelerated a rock the size of a bowling ball to 99.9 % the speed of light, and sent it in its direction and it would have blown it to pieces.

[SimKoning]

The best part is there would be no way to stop it or see it coming. Heck the rebels could have done more damage with rocks then the death star could lol

[mddawson1]

What do you think of the infinite improbability drive?

Also check out the anime series Planetes for a scientifically accurate redition of space (they consulted with JAXA to get the science right).

[SimKoning]

Believe or not John Scalzi used that idea in Old Man's War, though I don't think it was meant as a joke like it was in HGTTU ; )

BTW that concept runs the risk of conjuring a whale that has a very brief life. So I think it should be prohibited to prevent cruelty to animals .

[SimKoning]

edit I mean Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy, not sure where the U came from... woops oh well.

[mddawson1]

Rendition - I need to consult Webster's to get my spelling write.

[SimKoning]

Hey thanks for letting me know about that anime! That was pretty cool, I'll have to order the DVD and let you know what I think.

BTW if you want a suggestion for book on the scale of star wars, but realistic (and funny in a really dark way) read the 'Algebraist' by Ian M. Banks. The Forever Was great too, first book I read with realisitc space warfare.

[MiokovicD]

Excellent video!

Earlier you mentioned that you plan to explain why are gas giants moons place where we are most likely to find life. Do you still plan to do it?

[SimKoning]

yep