Spaceship Definition and 221 Threads

Hello all - once again! I am an aspiring SF writer currently in the process of writing a book. I am looking for ideas (go nuts!) for different types of spaceship fuels. The idea is that the fuel has to be something that exists in abundance (preferably naturally occurring), and...

There is a very very big space-ship in which light takes 1 second to reach from one corner to other corner. if two signals are sent one after other,what will be the amount of time for second signal to reach other corner? If spaceship is traveling with uniform acceleration(very high for our...

Hello. Me and a friend of mine were trying to get our heads around a few of the paradoxes that are found within Einstein's theory of relativity and he came up with something we could not work out ( though I am sure someone here will be able to :) Imagine you were in a spaceship...

Homework Statement A spaceship is moving with a velocity 0.8c\hat{x} towards a planet. At some instant it explodes into two pieces such that the rest mass of the first piece is one thirds the original rest mass while the rest mass of the second piece is half the original one. The problem is...

Perhaps you know the question what the captain of a spaceship trapped inside the black hole event horizon shall do in order to maximize the time left to being sucked into the singularity. I know the following idea (and I used to believe it over years :-) The geodesic equation of...

Hi all, I new to this physics thing and have a couple of ideas where i know I am wrong but would love if someone could explain why to me. My main mind boggler(for myself): If spaceship one takes off from one side of a planet at say 90% the speed of light and spaceship two takes off from...

Here is something I thought about the other day that could use some clarification... say a spaceship starts its voyage towards the Earth at 0.5c at a distance of 1 light year away from the earth. All measurements are made from an observer on earth. An observer on Earth only notices the ship...

The First "Spaceship" This should maybe be NASA's first goal, money saver and way to get to Mars. It is less than the title makes it look like. It would be similar in scale to the International Space Station, it would have ion or plasma thrusters, it would be modular and would be versatile...

Homework Statement A certain star is 76.6 light-years away. How many years would it take a spacecraft traveling 0.946c to reach that star from Earth, as measured by observers on Earth? How many years would it take to reach that star from Earth, as measured by observers on the spacecraft ...

For a school project, I may need to construct a model of a futuristic spaceship. This might be like something that you would see on "Star Wars". This model would have to open up to reveal the essential components needed for interstellar travel (i.e. engine, hyper drive, etc.) How might i go...

Homework Statement My question is obscure, but i had to ask. :smile: Lets say i built a ship that could hold the crab nebula(dimensions of the ship 15km*15km*20km). Now I want to use the nebula to power my ship somewhat like a flywheel. I would like to hear some possible solutions...

Homework Statement Lets imagine that in the movie 2010. The Discovery is rotating then they find it. Every time the ship reaches a speed in the circular motion of 24000 km/h the engine gives a burst of energy. Which amounts to 20 kN. The mass of the Discovery is 30.000 kg. The time from the...

Homework Statement A spaceship passes you at a speed of .750c. You measure its length to be 28.2 m. How long would it be when at rest? Homework Equations I think the equation that is relevant is L=L(sub0)xsqrt(1-v^2/c^2) The Attempt at a Solution L=28.2xsqrt(1-(.75^2))=18.65m...

Background: I work as an engineer with someone who is an "engineer" by trade only (not by training or formal education). Un/fortunately, before asking difficult questions, he researches information, or just hears about it online and tries to muddle his way to an understanding of it. He...

This thread is a spin-off from another thread that got me interested in an idea. Previously I didn't know this, but apparently you can use a flashlight to power a spaceship (since light has momentum). I understand the process would be horribly inefficient, but nevertheless it got interested in...

Homework Statement Relative to the rest frame, the trajectory of a spaceship is: x=vt y=y_0 An observer at: (x,y)=(0,0) wants to send a photon to hit the spaceship at: (x,y)=(0,y_0) a) When and in what direction must the observer send the photon? b) In the frame of the spaceship...

Let’s say we have a spaceship capable of traveling at the speed of light, and a planet we can visit 50 light years away. From earth’s perspective if we can track the ship we would be able to see it was traveling at the speed of light and we would also see it has taken 50 years to complete the...

Homework Statement calculate the escape velocity of a 10,500kg spaceship from earth. mass of Earth is 5.98*10kg and radius of the Earth is 6.38*10kg. elevant equations 2GM/R The Attempt at a Solution Using the formula i found escape velocity to be 3.464*10m/s. Is this correct?

If one was in a spaceship at rest in frame K and sees an evenly-distributed number of stars around them, what would the distribution of stars look like if you were traveling at relativistic speeds (frame K')? I'm conflicted because I've seen animations online that seem to illustrate the stars...

Homework Statement At a time when mining asteroids has become feasible, astronauts have connected a line between their 3500 kg space tug and 6200 kg asteroid. Using their ship's engine, they pull on the asteroid with a force of 490 N. Initially the tug and the asteroid are at rest, 450 m apart...

Homework Statement A spaceship of proper length Lp = 450 m moves past a transmitting station at a speed of 0.61c. (The transmitting station broadcasts signals at the speed of light) A clock is attached to the nose of the spaceship and a second clock is attached to the transmitting station. The...

Homework Statement A spaceship is launched and starts moving directly towards the Moon. At what distance from the Earth will the pull of the Moon on the spaceship exceed the pull of the Earth? Ignore the effect of the Sun in this calculation. Homework Equations F = Gm1m2/r2 F = ma...

if a spaceship accelerates, from rest at time t=0, at a rate of 2t / sqrt(1 + t2) ms-2 at time t, calculate in years to 1 significant figure how long it would take to reach the speed of light 3x108 ms-1? i got an answer of 5 years, is this correct, but i have made a mess of my workings, what...

Bell's spaceship paradox --- reversed The "[URL was discussed already https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=236681", but I would like to add a twist. I take for granted, that the thread breaks, as described by Bell himself. Suppose the experiment starts out with a bit of slack on...

Ok so I'm in 7th grade and I think I'm pretty good in science class. The other day we had some math questions involving some equations. One question was something like a spaceship hit the ground with a velocity of 100 m/s and then it asked like what was its mass. This question also included...

If there's a spaceship going in a circle (constant speed), and I want to know the time elapsed for me and for the spaceship (say, when it returns after a complete cycle). So, the ship is always traveling at the same speed v, therefore each time I can go to a certain inertial reference frame...

Homework Statement a 2710000kg spherical spaceship in deep space explodes into two pieces, one 3.61 times the mass of the other. (a) suppose the ship is initially at rest, and after the explosion the smaller piece is moving at 70.9m/s. Find the velocity of the larger piece. Find the energy...

Hypothetically If you were in a spaceship going 0.99999999999...c and you tried... Hypothetically, If you were in a spaceship going 0.9999999999999...c and you tried to walk forward up to the the end of the craft, what would happen.

Hi everyone, Today a strange thought came into my mind. We know that the mass of an object increases as it gets closer to the speed of light so it is often stated we would require more and more fuel to accelrate it further. However the mass of the fuel would also increase. What could be done...

Homework Statement You're riding a fast spaceship going 7.52 x 107m/s and you turn on your flashlight. What's the speed of the light ray relative to the spaceship? What is its speed relative to the earth? Homework Equations The Attempt at a Solution Deeply confused

1.The radius of our galaxy is approx. 3x10^20 m. A spaceship sets out to cross the galaxy in 25 years, as measured on board the ship. With what uniform speed does the spaceship need to travel? How long wold the trip take, as measured by a timepiece stationed on Earth? 2. v=d/t 3. So far I have...

An outside observer will perceive my spaceship as being shorter, but what will i see of my outside surroundings? Will they be longer?

Homework Statement A 6.91x106 kg spherical spaceship in deep space explodes into two pieces, one 4.77 times the mass of the other. NOTE: the velocity needs magnitude and direction (given by the sign). a) Suppose the ship is initially at rest, and after the explosion the smaller piece is...

Hi, a friend today teased me with the following SR problem. I worked out a solution but I'm not so confident about my SR. Should I better brush up on it? Homework Statement So there's this spaceship traveling at some unknown constant speed, getting away from Earth. It has two...

Homework Statement A spaceship moves radially away from the Earth with an acceleration of 20m/c2. How long does it take the sodium street lamps (\lambda=589 nm) on Earth to be invisible (with a powerful telescope) to the human eye of the astronauts? The visible spectrum is 400-700nm...

Hey, I don't know how to go about and answer this question A spaceship is launched and starts moving directly towards the moon. At what distance from the Earth will the pull of the moon, on the spaceship, exceed the pull of the Earth? Ignore the effect of the sun in this calculation. can...

I have some questions about one of the old elevator/spaceship thought experiments. 1. If I am on a spaceship that is far from any massive bodies and is accelerating upward (from my point of view) uniformly at g, is the spacetime in my ship curved or flat? 2. If a beam of light enters...

“proper” length A spaceship travels past a planet at a speed of 0.80 c as measured from the planet’s frame of reference. An observer on the planet measures the length of a moving spaceship to be 40 m. a) How long is the spaceship, according to the astronaut? b) At what speed would the...

Homework Statement A spaceship makes a trip from the Earth to the moon 380,000 km awawy. at what point in the trip will the gravitational field be zero ? the mass of the moon is about 1/81 that of the earth Homework Equations Fg = Gm1m2 / r^2 The Attempt at a Solution ummmmmm i...

Spaceship entering mars! okay guys so you have to open this file to read the question accuretely.. i have done some calculations but not sure if they are correct. So just this as best as i can, fist i figure out my semi-minor axis = a by 150km +150 KM +230 km =530km (major axis) now to...

"The fact that this system will have the capability to launch small payloads and satellites at low cost is hugely important," he told the launch event at the American Museum of Natural History. "As far as science is concerned, this system offers tremendous potential to researchers who will be...

I'm considering doing a sci-fi comic or novel in an Einsteinian universe, no wormholes or faster-than-light travel. I haven't seen this done very often. It's been a while since I've worked with math, though, so I'm having some trouble. First, I just want you to check my math. The relativistic...

Homework Statement On a spaceship moving 5/6C, an astronaut fires a light pulse from a gun. The barrel of the gun makes an angle of 60 degrees from the X direction relative to the spaceship. What angle does the gun make in the rest frame of an observer on Earth and what angle does the light...

Homework Statement A spaceship of mass 2.00×10^6 kg is cruising at a speed of 6.00×10^6 m/s when the antimatter reactor fails, blowing the ship into three pieces. One section, having a mass of 4.60×10^5 kg, is blown straight backward with a speed of 2.10×10^6 m/s. A second piece, with mass...

Homework Statement Hi guys, I'm in a Physics for poets class? Could you , please, help me with these questions? Suppose you are watching a spaceship go past you toward the right at close to the speed of light. 1. How do the clocks on the spaceship appear to run compared to your own clock...

And also check this one. Homework Statement A physics professor on the Earth gives an exam to her students.who are in the spacecraft traveling at a speed v relarive to the Earth.The moment the craft passes the professor,she signals to start of the exam.She wishes her students to have time...

Homework Statement Suppose our sun is about to explode. In an effort to escape, we depart in a spaceship at v = 0.8c and head toward the start Tau Ceti, 12 light years away. When we reach the midpoint of our journey from the Earth, we see our Sun explode and, unfortunately, at the same...

Homework Statement A spaceship departs from Earth for the star Alpha Centauri whic is 4 light years away. The spaceship travels at .75c. Howlong does it take to get there (a) as measured on Earth and (b) as measured by by a passenger on the spaceship Homework Equations proper time =...

Suppose there's a spaceship accelerating at a constant rate, say g, thanks to some magic rocket engine. This engine creates a constant force on the ship, which is sufficient to accelerate its constant mass at a constant rate. Supposing that the floor is perpendicular to the line of travel, the...

Homework Statement The position of a spaceship is: r(t)=(3+t)i +(2+ln(t))j+(7-\frac{4}{t^2+1})k and the coordinated of the space station are (6,4,9). The captian wants the spaceship to coast into the the space station. When should the engines be turned off? Homework Equations r(t)=(3+t)i...