Geekend Update: Fusion Rockets, Hexapod, and Almost Earths

Ashley Esqueda

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Jan 15, 2013
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dmase said:
I've always wondered how humans would start developing on planets with more mass than earth like kepler 62f. Assuming our bones didn't start cracking a couple weeks after we got there they'd basically be super humans after a couple generations.
I _believe_ I read that the reason researchers were specifically excited about these particular exoplanets was that they were so close in size to our own Earth that it might be possible to adjust if we ever gained the ability to reach their surfaces. Usually, they're so much larger than our own Earth that living on the surface would certainly crush our delicate little bodies.
 

Matthi205

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Mar 8, 2012
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Ashley Esqueda said:
dmase said:
I've always wondered how humans would start developing on planets with more mass than earth like kepler 62f. Assuming our bones didn't start cracking a couple weeks after we got there they'd basically be super humans after a couple generations.
I _believe_ I read that the reason researchers were specifically excited about these particular exoplanets was that they were so close in size to our own Earth that it might be possible to adjust if we ever gained the ability to reach their surfaces. Usually, they're so much larger than our own Earth that living on the surface would certainly crush our delicate little bodies.
Exciting, perhaps. But we'd need approximately 4600 years to reach them. And that's at 300 times the speed of light already.

At the speed of light, we'd need 1 388 373,2 years to reach it. That said, the versions of the planets that we can see at the moment are the ones that are from before over a million years, so there's a chance that there is already life inhabiting them.

Eric the Orange said:
wait wait, "fusion" rocket? Sense when could we do fusion? Last I heard we couldn't do fusion in a power plant much less a rocket. unless I've been behind on fusion related technological advances. I mean if we can reliably do fusion in a rocket why don't we have fusion power plants?
Because funding for fusion power plants doesn't get cleared most of the time. There are security concerns there, as well as rediation contamination concerns since most of the planned reactors use a mixture of Deuterium and Tritium (which is radioactive). It'll also take some more years of research into the technology until it is actually ready for widespread deployment in power plants. But since in space you don't have all that many health and safety concerns, and you basically just need to secure a more or less constant stream of particles to move the rocket forward, not actually gain electricity from the whole business.