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Posted: 1/8/2006 1:42:27 PM EDT
(That's an irregular word, isn't it? Usually a plural 'y' is 'ies', but 'flybies' doesn't look right. Oh well, something else to ponder)

Going on from the Train thread... My turn to start a pointless science question.

I've always wondered what the Starfleet Ship At Warp Speed thing would look like to a stationary observer. The TV shows always have the thing coming towards the viewer from the distance.

Given that they are going many times faster than light, it seems to me that the first light waves to reach the observer would be from the closest point of approach. You would then be hit simultaneously by light waves coming from both the approach path and the departure path.

So starting with the image of Enterprise at closest point of approach, I theorise that you would see an image of it go backwards to where the ship came from, and at exactly the same time, you would see another image of it shooting forwards to where it vanishes in the distance.

I think the Next Gen people might have figured this out with the 'Picard Maneuver' (with the impression given of two Enterprises at the same time), but since it seems logical normal results, I wonder why they decided to make it seem like a revolutionary combat tactic?

Am I off base?

If they flew at exactly light speed, would there just be a 'flash' of a single, infinitely long Enterprise, which then vanishes?

NTM
Link Posted: 1/8/2006 1:45:01 PM EDT
[#1]
nerd
Link Posted: 1/8/2006 1:45:16 PM EDT
[#2]
Yes.

Despite the way it's portrayed, warp drive supposedly does just that: warp space so that the ship can move FTL in this universe. I doubt you'd see it at all.

Hell, the FTL depictions in Battlestar Galactica are probably more accurate.

Of course, we'll never know until Dr. Cochran is born...
Link Posted: 1/8/2006 1:57:02 PM EDT
[#3]
Give Dr. Steven Hawkins a $10 Billion budget and we may yet have an FTL, or Warp drive system.
Link Posted: 1/8/2006 2:01:38 PM EDT
[#4]
Near light or even faster than light travel might be closer than we think.

news.scotsman.com/scitech.cfm?id=16902006
Link Posted: 1/8/2006 2:07:24 PM EDT
[#5]
If you accelerate like that you would be chunky salsa.. Your body cant handle that kind of acceleration.. The ship would crush itself as well...

No such thing as a structural integrity field yet... Too bad...
Link Posted: 1/8/2006 2:14:44 PM EDT
[#6]
Inertial compensators. They fail every now and then in the Honor Harrington series. Doesn't do healthy things for the crew at 500 Gs

NTM
Link Posted: 1/8/2006 2:40:08 PM EDT
[#7]
I don't know if you agree or disagree with any of these people, but lets just imagine the following scenerio..
One day your watching the news and a new team of adventurer s who are anouncing their intent to not only go to space but take the next step and go to the moon. planets, and our nearest neighboring star.

As you watch the team members are introduced.

Richard Branson. He will head and manage the teams of companies and support staff.

Steven Hawkins. He will gather and oversee the developement of the engine and power systems.

Burt Rutan. Will design and develope the new ships and stations needed for the task.

Bill Gates. He has most of the companies needed for the project. If he doesnt have them, he can get them on the team.

I know that some of you hate one member of the team, but it cant be done without his contacts and his ability to get investors.


Who else would you like to see on that team?
Link Posted: 1/8/2006 3:18:08 PM EDT
[#8]

Quoted:
Who else would you like to see on that team?



Chuck Norris for security, in case hostile alien life is encountered?

Interesting question though.

NTM
Link Posted: 1/8/2006 3:37:37 PM EDT
[#9]

Quoted:

Quoted:
Who else would you like to see on that team?



Chuck Norris for security, in case hostile alien life is encountered?

Interesting question though.

NTM



Link Posted: 1/8/2006 3:51:35 PM EDT
[#10]

Quoted:
I don't know if you agree or disagree with any of these people, but lets just imagine the following scenerio..
One day your watching the news and a new team of adventurer s who are anouncing their intent to not only go to space but take the next step and go to the moon. planets, and our nearest neighboring star.

As you watch the team members are introduced.

Richard Branson. He will head and manage the teams of companies and support staff.

Steven Hawkins. He will gather and oversee the developement of the engine and power systems.

Burt Rutan. Will design and develope the new ships and stations needed for the task.

Bill Gates. He has most of the companies needed for the project. If he doesnt have them, he can get them on the team.

I know that some of you hate one member of the team, but it cant be done without his contacts and his ability to get investors.


Who else would you like to see on that team?



An actual qualified crew maybe?  You have listed some great support, management, get the shit together people, but as for the actual leaving the earth part I'm not so sure.
Link Posted: 1/8/2006 5:32:14 PM EDT
[#11]
Link Posted: 1/8/2006 6:47:18 PM EDT
[#12]

Quoted:
I don't know if you agree or disagree with any of these people, but lets just imagine the following scenerio..
One day your watching the news and a new team of adventurer s who are anouncing their intent to not only go to space but take the next step and go to the moon. planets, and our nearest neighboring star.

As you watch the team members are introduced.

Richard Branson. He will head and manage the teams of companies and support staff.Spread too thin with his businesses.  Doesn't have enough money.

Steven Hawkins. He will gather and oversee the developement of the engine and power systems.Slow, and even wrong occasionally.

Burt Rutan. Will design and develope the new ships and stations needed for the task.Dreams well, might even build a proof of concept vehicle.  Don't let him near anything that needs to be certified.  Spends too much time bitching about the US government and .gov contractors, all of whom are forced to work under radically different constraints than Rutan.  He's been singing the same song since the mid 80's; Rutan is also known to take contracts for work from the US government.  Don't blithely forget Burt's failures; the Solitaire, the AMSOIL Racer, and the Pond racer, for a few.

Bill Gates. He has most of the companies needed for the project???. If he doesnt have them, he can get them on the team.He doesn't have enough money.

I know that some of you hate one member of the team, but it cant be done without his contacts and his ability to get investors.


Who else would you like to see on that team?

Link Posted: 1/8/2006 8:26:40 PM EDT
[#13]

Quoted:

Quoted:
Who else would you like to see on that team?



Chuck Norris for security, in case hostile alien life is encountered?

Interesting question though.

NTM





Chuck Norris doesn't need a FTL engine. He just scares the planet he's standing on so badly the planet repulses him at FTL velocities.
Link Posted: 1/9/2006 1:19:08 AM EDT
[#14]

Quoted:
If you accelerate like that you would be chunky salsa.. Your body cant handle that kind of acceleration.. The ship would crush itself as well...

No such thing as a structural integrity field yet... Too bad...



The ship is in a 'warp field', there is no significant acceleration of the contents.

To answer the original question, it depends on the nature of a warp field.  If the warp field is externally observable, and produces small warping effects over distance (as opposed to large warping effects in discrete jumps), the ship might appear stretched out lengthwise (a reverse of the normal high-speed effects of Lorenz contraction).  

Building on the analogue of sonic booms, a photonic shock wave would probably form from light reflected by the warp bubble or ship. so that there would be a tremendous flash of light as the ship passed any given point in space.

This is all addle-brained (from sleepiness) conjecture on my part, I haven't given it any deep or serious consideration.  I also have no idea whether this fits in with the Trek canon.

Jim
Link Posted: 1/9/2006 1:26:38 AM EDT
[#15]
Screw FTL if I need to be any place I just MIRACLE MY ASS THERE.
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