How to build a Black Hole engine for a starship

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seanoz
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How to build a Black Hole engine for a starship

Post by seanoz » Thu Nov 05, 2009 4:56 am

Ohh my god, this just popped up on Digg when I posted the one about the 4inch carbon atmosphere on neutron stars, hilarious, this looks like something from a comedy site, but it really is a serious article, I promise.

Sean.

http://io9.com/5391989/a-black-hole-eng ... spaceships
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earls
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Re: How to build a Black Hole engine for a starship

Post by earls » Thu Nov 05, 2009 8:00 am

See, what's ironically funny is that this concept is more at home in the electric Universe versus a gravitational Universe. Light is an electromagnetic phenomenon, not gravitational.

All they seem to be proposing is concentrating an enormous amount of light in an incredibly minute space. Sounds like self-sustaining plasmoid to me.

I fail to understand how it could NOT rotate however.
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jjohnson
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Re: How to build a Black Hole engine for a starship

Post by jjohnson » Thu Nov 05, 2009 10:08 am

Correctly linked to Mad Science.
Louis Crane and Shawn Westmoreland of Kansas State University propose a way to use black holes as fuel that is entirely within the bounds of physics and technology as we know them, but would take phenomenal amount of engineering.
Sort of like tokomak fusion? Better stick to corn-based ethanol engines, boys! Damn the electricity! Full speed ahead!! -and these guys draw a paycheck for this!
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SciRPG
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Re: How to build a Black Hole engine for a starship

Post by SciRPG » Sat Nov 07, 2009 9:06 am

Black holes have a "sweet spot"?
lol... like they know this first hand?
~~Richard K~~
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Birkeland
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Re: How to build a Black Hole engine for a starship

Post by Birkeland » Sat Nov 07, 2009 4:49 pm

SciRPG wrote:Black holes have a "sweet spot"?
Indeed, but it's difficult to spot it.
"The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody had decided not to see" - Ayn Rand
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earls
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Re: How to build a Black Hole engine for a starship

Post by earls » Sat Nov 07, 2009 7:48 pm

The equation, anyway.
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mharratsc
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Re: How to build a Black Hole engine for a starship

Post by mharratsc » Tue Nov 10, 2009 4:01 pm

Birkeland wrote:
SciRPG wrote:Black holes have a "sweet spot"?
Indeed, but it's difficult to spot it.
What you have to do is- first you flip them over on their little backs, and then you pull their little tails down a bit, then... voila!
Sorta like checking to see if your hamster is a boy or a girl. o.O


Mike H.
Mike H.

"I have no fear to shout out my ignorance and let the Wise correct me, for every instance of such narrows the gulf between them and me." -- Michael A. Harrington
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