BBC Focus Magazine

[M Paul Lloyd]

Who would have thought it? Transparent aluminium is actually possible... well almost but hey what next? Force fields, warp drive, replicators, curing kidney disease with a pill?
Which bit of Star Trek fiction do you see becoming a reality at some point in the future?



Transparent aluminium
http://www.funtrivia.com/tournament/FOC ... 87402.html
Star Trek IV
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzRziK-kZtQ

[The Beige Avenger]

...oh no you didn't!!

[worldmaker]

Forcefields, I've just been working on in the last couple of months.

[nemisis39]

ooooooooh ST errr ill get back to you on this one

[nemisis39]

Ok thought about this one for a bit and it has to be tribbles (opps there balls of fluff not tech stuff (but are cute ) )). As most ,if not all of the technical wizardry in ST is theoretical possible, id like to see everything from warp drive down to the replicater but being theoretical and actual available are two different things. Some of the tech we already have in a way i.e. hand held communicators (mobile phones) but id love to see holo decks or something similar

[The Jules]

Aren't forcefields currently being worked on to protect spacecraft from cosmic radiation?

How powerful would one have to be to stop a physical object like . . . I dunno . . . an orbiting toolbox?

[M Paul Lloyd]

It all depends on the relative velocity and mass of space vehicle and tool box, I don't have any figures to hand but given that a gram of material can do so much damage (a flake of paint cracked the shuttles windscreen as I recall) then the energy a tool box would posses and the energy thus required to deflect it would be probably greater than any orbital vehicle could actually generate.

I'll try and get some figure together and get back to you on this one.

[The Jules]

Make sure a complete doofus can understand it though MPL. I am going to have to read it, after all.

[M Paul Lloyd]

Good grief I had to log back in just to post a reply!?

Ok Doofus level as you wish.

An object possesses kinetic energy by virtue of its mass times its velocity, effectively how much it weighs times how fast it is going, which is expressed as mass x velocity or mv, and thus even a small object travelling very fast will posses a lot of kinetic energy. Like the bullet from a gun, it weighs only a few grams but it travels fast and thus does a lot of damage on impact.

So a flake of paint with a mass of just 0.10 grams travelling at say 100 kilometres per second (not an unprecedented velocity in space terms) will posses sufficient energy to penetrate 100 millimetres of solid aluminium alloy. Now try to imagine how much energy you would need to do that by hand with a hand drill brace and bit??

So if you wanted to make a deflector field powerful enough to push a 1 kilogramme tool kit (that's 10,000 times bigger than the flake of paint) travelling at a similar velocity it is going to need either a wapping big piece of aluminium alloy or the equivalent as a source of power in kilowatts, and that's going to be a lot, too much in real terms unless you could harness the power of a nuclear reactor.

[The Jules]

Even I understood that.

What about the type of material MPL? Would metals be easier to deflect than rock for instance, or could you have a Star Trek type field which is impervious to physical objects?

[M Paul Lloyd]

If the object posses an electromagnetic element, or is electrically polarized then it could be deflected by an electromagnetic field but some inert like a piece of carboniferous rock is going to defy all your attempts to deflect it.

Ideally a forcefield would be based upon electromagnetic and gravitational components making it impervious to pretty much anything.

Trouble is we don't have a clue how gravity works, other than it needs a lot of mass to produce it.

[worldmaker]

If the object posses an electromagnetic element, or is electrically polarized then it could be deflected by an electromagnetic field...

Which is along the lines I've been thinking.

I was inspired by an article in Analog magazine from 2007 about superconductor coils to create magnetic shields for vessels; but the shield would have to be either (a) too strong if you want a strong deflection force close to the ship's hull, or (b) weaker but more distant from the ship.

I've drawn up a modification to the SpingShip design (see Reference Section) that places a large hoop out around the ship to create such a deflection at a distance of a few hundred feet.

This only applies to objects which can be magnetised (aluminium cases, boxes, tools might also react this way), and have a modest velocity. The shield is primarily intended on deflection solar radiation, but could apply to some physical objects.

As the technology of superconductors improves so this will increase the strength and efficiency of such hoop fields.

I haven't had a chance to publish my amendment to the SpringShip proposal.

Ideally a forcefield would be based upon electromagnetic and gravitational components making it impervious to pretty much anything.

Trouble is we don't have a clue how gravity works, other than it needs a lot of mass to produce it.

As for gravity, I have a suspicion that as we progress with magnetism the increased focus of attention by scientists and engineers around the world will give us more understanding and control of this force, or whatever it it.

Oh, and I suspect it doesn't need a lot of mass to to create it. Look at magnets - do we need planets to create strong magnetic fields or just strong currents running through a wire? Somewhere along the line of research we'll fine the right current in the right wires, coils, whatever, that will give us control of gravitational forces without needing to build a planet, or a black hole for crossing to the stars (wormwell gravity drives, another article...).

[lancsman]

There are materials available now that do exactly what a force field needs to do. These materials need to be studied and re-created in such a way that would allow them to be used in a force-field setting.

One example is a layer incorporated into our hero's (Brit Soldiers) helmets in battle situations. It is a rubbery substance that allows slow objects to pass through, but stops fast objects.

A pointy-head needs to re-create that molecular technology into a field, and you have a 'substance' that will allow craft through to the space-station, for example, as they would be travelling slowly, but stop the toolbox or the paint flek.

Marterials technology might overcome the need - glass and metal you can form and build, but once you are ready, zap it with some form of energy and it will withstand anything. Carbon Fibre is a thousand times stronger than anything we could make 50 years ago. After another 50 years ... ?

Knuckle-draggers like me just avoid the junk and asteroids as we go about our hum-drum lives using cool driving techniques !

[nemisis39]

naw just shoot them with the plasma phase cannon

When Mr Rodennberry was thinking the alien names up in ST i wonder if he realised what far reaching consequences there would be after naming the Klingon's

[M Paul Lloyd]

The only problem with the Star Trek deflector field was that it had to be able to travel faster than the ship itself which presumably is why 'warp factor 9' was so very hairy for poor old Scotty tending his ' Wee Bairns'.

[The Beige Avenger]

....
One example is a layer incorporated into our hero's (Brit Soldiers) helmets in battle situations. It is a rubbery substance that allows slow objects to pass through, but stops fast objects.
...

D3O

Or... the shield from Dune

Only the slow blade can penetrate the shield..

Or... custard powder or any similar non-Newtonian fluid

[M Paul Lloyd]

I'm with custard powder, or plain starch flour and very much the same was suggested some years ago on the old forum bbw now sadly lost.

Damn but we could have made money out of that.

[Chris_3_16]

Yeah the communicators from the original series are available (motorola v3) and the handheld computers picard had in his ready room exist now also.

The holodeck is not too far away, with the advent of DLP television systems allowing 3d imaging, all it would take would be a room with walls made up entirely of these screens and the 3d glasses required to give the 3d effect, however being able to holographically alter the programs as you were using them, to add characters or objects on command would be another challenge. The holodeck also seems to be infinite in size once the programs are running, not sure how they acheive that!

[nemisis39]

The holodeck also seems to be infinite in size once the programs are running, not sure how they acheive that!

increased memory would be the answer but just how far can you go with it im not sure, with the advancements in computer programming the posabilities could be endless.

[M Paul Lloyd]

Processing power will be the key I think.