Comment Does not apply to FTL (Score 1) 428
None of these missed calls, esp. satellite radio, defy the known physics of their day. Those FTL-friendly people see FTL as a mere 'technological breakthrough."
Advantages: putting the heavy lifting on the booster on Earth (where logistics is easier), don't waste energy stopping/pausing and restarting the trajectory.
Disadvantages: You better be sure you can refuel in flight.
"There is nothing 'out there' that is worth the cost of going. Forget that motivation. Does that mean we shouldn't go? No, but it means we've passed the Point of No Return on Investment!"
Michael Gavon on 'Rocket Science' ©1990
For example: Mining the asteroids for Unobtanium. To mine the Unobtanium, you need to lift the mining equipment to the asteroid. Bring or get the energy to mine it. Load it and de-orbit it from the Belt to Earth AND THEN STOP IT. You can work some cool tricks (slingshots, balutes, solar sails, whatnot) but the energy remains the same. The amount of energy to get something there and back is IMMENSE. You will NEVER recoup that money spent on energy and structure by selling what you bring back. Remember the payload of rocks from Apollo.
The only thing up there that MIGHT pay for itself is an energy source, like Dilithium. Nothing else is worth it.
Find another motivation. Today's XKCD might help, or it might explain why it WON'T work.
You decide... and decide you must. If you choose not to decide you still have made a choice
I have programmed on TRS-80s and 8088 w/8087s. Compiled C and Read & Go BASIC.
But now I'm programming python on an 8-core Xeon. When I'm writing a stored procedure or a nested loop of two recordsets, I ***STILL*** catch myself thinking about how slowly those instructions would take on a slower machine. "Do you know how LONG that looping will take?... oh. 0.000006 seconds. heh heh. I catch myself "subvocalizing" the loops, and I shy away from something "so resource intensive" and look for another, more efficient solution.
Yes, it's great to learn how a computer does what it does, but if you miss the simple solution because your mind is "read and go"-ing, then you hobble yourself.
"Just think, with VLSI we can have 100 ENIACS on a chip!" -- Alan Perlis