Could ME thrusters be used to produce torque?

KitemanSA · Post by **KitemanSA** » Mon Oct 12, 2009 12:39 am

chrismb wrote: They're the voices we all can hear in our heads.

(We do all hear voices, don't we??....)

Aw come-on. Those voices are just the other side of our brains tweeking us. The are what make us sapient rather than just sentient.

AcesHigh · Post by **AcesHigh** » Mon Oct 12, 2009 1:37 pm

TallDave wrote: "STEALING MOMENTUM FROM OTHER GALAXIES IS WRONG"

"EXTRATERRESTRIALS HAVE RIGHTS TOO"

seems like the premise of Arthur´s C Clarke & Stephen Baxter´s books A TIME ODYSSEY... where a very ancient (billion year old) and powerful alien civilization destroys new civilizations because they are so worried about the fact that intelligence consumes so much energy in the universe if they are left to develop and start interstellar or intergalactic civilizations.

So humanity is next target and they just create a pocket universe that serves like a zoo... they take slices of land out of several time periods of Earth (putting in the same earth Genghis Khan armies, Alexander the Great, a partially abandoned Babylon, etc)... to study and preserve human inteligence and culture.

Looks like nonsense, but since they were written by Clarke and Baxter, it is actually quite interesting.

93143 · Post by **93143** » Thu Oct 15, 2009 7:17 pm

I just finished watching Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. Similar principle, except that the power source in question explicitly and blatantly violates conservation, so the danger is actually a premature universal gravitational collapse rather than a premature heat death.

At least the aliens were even-handed enough to put their own civilization in stasis in a pocket dimension before trying to stomp down everyone else...

chrismb · Post by **chrismb** » Thu Oct 15, 2009 8:04 pm

AcesHigh wrote: seems like the premise of Arthur´s C Clarke & Stephen Baxter´s books A TIME ODYSSEY... where a very ancient (billion year old) and powerful alien civilization destroys new civilizations because they are so worried about the fact that intelligence consumes so much energy in the universe if they are left to develop and start interstellar or intergalactic civilizations.

Interesting. It would seem highly realistic were an extraterrestrial species were to be 'found' and started generating CO2. In this political age, would we feel obliged to stop the species of another planet generating what we consider to be atmospherically changing CO2, and would today's CO2 police feel some moral authority to intervene??

ltgbrown · Post by **ltgbrown** » Wed May 19, 2010 8:18 pm

Kurt9, you wrote: "Torque is necessary for ground transportation (cars, trains, etc.) as well as ships. If successful, MLT will be more revolutionary than polywell. If you can generate torque with this device, you're talking about an all electric transportation system.

Polywell is definitely desirable. But if we don't get it or any other fusion, there are new fission technologies waiting in the wings like LFTR's or IFR's. Also any of the D-T fusion systems, if they cannot generate power const competitively, can certainly be used for fusion/fission hybrid power plants. I think this the likely outcome IF we do not get B-H fusion.

BTW, I will have more on the new dielectric material (polymer/metal composite) early next year. Its under development right now. They are developing it for embedded power applications for MEMS devices."

Any update on new dielectric materials? Or did I miss it?

By the way 93143, I reread your math, and yes, it is not too difficult, I followed it fine, just didn't understand where all the energy was coming from. I just re-re-reread Paul's posts, very gracious of him to take so much time to explain HIS understanding, and have decided I like his explanation/hypothesis forhow conservation of energy is maintained. Temperature drop of the rest of the universe. As you stated, it would appear that the reason an M-E thruster would not work is for some other reason than the conservation of energy.