Recent content by Loren Pechtel

Yup. Getting the velocity isn't the problem. Keeping it and not burning up is quite another matter. Nobody's come up with math for a catapult system that would work, let alone a Verne launch.

Moo! Tables exist for the maximum velocity that can be obtained from the various planets.

A K2 civilization can be detected at short intergalactic range if we can see the star. Nothing puts out anything like our star's worth of energy at a temperature suitable for a radiator dissipating the energy after the civilization has put it to use.

Many years ago I woke up, there was a little red light dancing around. I grew more and more puzzled trying to figure the situation out. Then I finally identified the smoke alarm's indicator light, sitting perfectly stationary on the ceiling. Our vision is only stable because our brains treat...

No idea on the g-tolerance of a tardigrade, but what's the relevance? I'm talking about speed, not acceleration. Your 16,000g is unquestionably from a centrifuge, it's just going round and round, not smacking the atmosphere.

Orbital mechanics 101: The orbit includes the point where you finished your last burn. The only way Verne can put anything in orbit is with a gravity maneuver with the Moon.

Plumbob. Way, way above escape velocity--but no way it could have survived the atmosphere. For anything to survive a Verne launch it's got to be basically a needle whose tip will be severely burned away by it's flight through the atmosphere.

Direct nuclear power source, akin to the radioisotope thermal generators that power the latest Mars rovers and pretty much anything that goes beyond Jupiter. As with all such sources you get a little bit of power for a long time. This will last a lot longer than the Pu-238 stuff NASA uses and...

Populous. You old enough to know the game?

You're changing your definition in the middle here. You said "indistinguishable"--for that you need to model everything. Making it look normal is a much, much easier task. I'm thinking of a novel which for the most part eludes me at present but I do recall a scene where someone figures out...

But they're not! It's a coverup to hide the fact they are stealing the cocaine! :)

Yup. I don't know what my mother did differently but hers were good. Standard I don't like. I do remember hers were firmer than standard.

No, the point is there is no possible suspension as you can only transmit the force at the speed of sound.

Two problems: 1) They're not in the right place to do this. 2) While in theory you could get 96km/sec out of Mercury look at the periapsis. It's way, way below the surface.

Once you have solar escape you can't do more than a few encounters because you won't come back. Soon you run out of planets in the right place and that's it. Note that for our system Jupiter is enough to give escape, only three more encounters are possible--and that happens less than once a...