Alien Propulsion system

How do you think that alien space ships propel themselves though space? If they exist, but am asuming they do. I have heard that they use a system of strong magnets and align them in a way that it will create a strong gravitational pull infront of thier ship. They aim three magnetic rods to a point infront of the ship, thus causing a gravitational force to form infront of the ship, causing the ship to be pulled toward that point. It would be like putting a bowling ball on your bed and pushing your fist into the bed. The bowling ball would move toward your fist. I am amazed that there has not been more experiments done with magnets in order to advance our society. The only break thru in magnetic research is when they invented the magnetic train that goes like 300 miles per hour. I think that the future will yield a great deal of magnetic research and discoveries.

I think they use Premium unleaded.

Magnetism has very little to do with gravity. And even with magnetics, if you put a magnet at the end of a pole with something ferrous near it, it wouldnt go anywhere becasue the force of the magnet pulling on the object is exactly balanced by the force of the object pushing on the pole.

I think they use Premium unleaded.

To go across the Universe?? No, I'm thinkin diesel...

No, regular unleaded. It's obvious only a rotary motor could be the key to space travel.

With an Allison 8 speed transmission...

But it's not economical... the diesel gets the best mileage.... :lol:

ok to get back to the seriousness. i think it would work like a particle accelerater where you turn the magnets on and off. or like a rail gun where you put a piece of metal in and the magnets shoots it off.

ok to get back to the seriousness. i think it would work like a particle accelerater where you turn the magnets on and off. or like a rail gun where you put a piece of metal in and the magnets shoots it off.


Well sure, that's the basic principle of rockets; shoot out a bunch of stuff out the back, and according to newtwons law of every action has an equal an opposite reation, the rocket moves forward. Problem is, one can only go a certain speed with that, which is much less than the speed of light. Even at the speed of light, our aliens would have to be travelling a looooong time to get anywhere.

Where the hell do you come up with these questions? :screwy: :grinno:

But what would a magnet do in space, shoot magnetism? That's not how magnets work!

Where the hell do you come up with these questions? :screwy: :grinno:

True that. Somebodies getting stoned... :smokin:

I was having a discussing with a classmate the other day on the theory that there has to be other aliens out there that have some kind of equivilent of a car. We also theorized that those aliens probably had some equivilent to alcohol or some other type of dehabilitating drug. Then we thought there has to be an alien equivelent to a D.W.I. Then we theorized that we were theorizing too much. Whatever....

Duh, don't these idiots know all aliens use warp drive?

http://files.automotiveforums.com/gallery/watermark.php?file=/500/105368Enterprise_Attack_II-med.jpg

ok to get back to the seriousness. i think it would work like a particle accelerater where you turn the magnets on and off. or like a rail gun where you put a piece of metal in and the magnets shoots it off.

wouldn't work like that though.

the magnets on say a railgun are mounted to a non moving object (i.e. the gun) and are used to accelerate the projectile.

for an alien spacecraft the spacecraft is the one moving (i.e. the projectile.) what are the magnets to be mounted to to move it? you can't mount them to the spacecraft itself. that just won't work.

So you guys dont think it is possible to create a gravitational force infront of a space ship? I mean it could be generated with something other than magnets or something. I think it will probably be with those new elements that we are creating. Unatanium, which only exists for less than a second before degrading. If we were able to harness these new elements and figure out how to use them maybe they would have some great purpose. Im just hypothetically asking.

well, there's a reason they last for fractions of a second...

I like to think of it this way: What if there really ARE hundreds of other planets with intelligent life such as ours, or even more advanced, but there was just no way in the universe to travel faster than the speed of light,

Unatanium?!? MR2, are you majoring in quantum theory or something? You really do ask some pretty deep questions sometimes. Not clowning or anything, just asking...

I am majoring in Biology but I am also taking Physics courses that make me question reality and question different aspects of life. I am also interested in quantum theory. I just wanted to know what a bunch of other people thought about my ideas and questions. Maybe I am asking the wrong people cause alot of people on here dont seem to be to educated.

It's not that I'm not educated, it's just that I don't worry myself about these things, it's just a waste of time. If you really want to know, I believe that they (if they even exist) use their own advanced form of nuclear energy.

i like to think that they use a system of worping or worp skipping

How could I even forget?
http://www.beefhole.com/vtec.jpg

Yo, I think that if you use means to create an artificial force field around and containing the space-craft, a force field is measured in Newtons/Kilogram, Newtons being a vector quantity bearing direction, in this case pointed straight ahead from the front of the vehicle. And Gravity, and Magnetism are two different fundamental forces, that both can create fields.

Magnets don't create gravity forces they create magnetism forces.

How could I even forget?
http://www.beefhole.com/vtec.jpg

:lol2: Makes sense to me.

there was an article on future propulsion systems like that in Popular Science...

I don't know about the magnetic theory.But I have heard that in the Bermuda Triangle there's alot of magnetic force and it causes alot of ship's and plane's instruments to go crazy.That's why so many of them have dissapeared over the years.They can't navigate their way out,resulting in crashes into the ocean,never to be seen or heard from again.

Not true. If you move a body here it will affect an object 50,000 light years away by gravity. This force is weak, but instant. Here is the theory to travel faster than light:
ALL particles react to gravity, so if you can manipulate that force, say align the particles in a cetin fashion, you could digitize an object as a pattern of aligned particles and send it along this aligned path. Sort of like a water hose. You have aliened the hose as a conduit and send the water through it.
Yes, this is over simplified but there is the thought that light is not an ending point, just a barrier that needs to be breached.
If you, being the digitized aligned particles, can reassemble at the other end of the conduit, you travel faster than light. Instantly you are somewhere else.
Now, apply that to beings, in a ship, (so you can travel normally when you get there) go down this same conduit. You, your things and your ship arrive at the destination without degradation of time, thus faster than light.

Now apply that to my Ion engine in my Avay, and I go very fast. :)

So you guys dont think it is possible to create a gravitational force infront of a space ship? I mean it could be generated with something other than magnets or something. I think it will probably be with those new elements that we are creating. Unatanium, which only exists for less than a second before degrading. If we were able to harness these new elements and figure out how to use them maybe they would have some great purpose. Im just hypothetically asking.

BWAHAHAAHAHAHA!!!! OMG! youve been watching way to much of the movie "The Core" that stupid movie where they drill into the center of the earth and plant nuclear bombs. Lol the made the vehicle out of a metal called "Unatnium" because it was unobtainable. And if it really is a real element, someone needs to get shot for making up such a stupid name.

As for the purpulsion, some kids in my high school made a craft that would hover. Thats not to hard you say. Well they made it hover/fly without using any moving parts or magnets. What you say? Thats not possible. Actually it is, now they didnt invent, just copied it, but scientist still arent sure how it works. I dont know either, but ill describe it to you.

Oddly enough it was a triangle, made with very thing light wood, it had a metal covering im guessing aluminum foil. Last it had a power source that ran though the foil. I watched this thing float with my own eyes. They had it tied down with string, but there it was floating, no moving parts what so ever.

Ion propulsion

Or
Farts.

I can't decide.

How bout the stuff they use for Startrek? Anti-matter?

It is probaly something verry small and simple. I try not to think complicated on things I do not know. If I see an alien I will ask his secret and hijack his ship. And hold him hostage, and make him show me how to make the crop circles.

How could I even forget?
http://www.beefhole.com/vtec.jpg


bullcrap its been scientifically proven vtec cannot do that only nawwwzzzz can

Well, I was pretty intrigued by this topic, so I did a lot of research. Space travel is a very interesting and deep topic and there are many theories, all of which have their good points, and counter points. I believe a very important part of space travel is wormholes. When used properly you can be transported through space with absence of time. But the best overall theory so far, is not the wormhole theory. Its called the Magnetational Push Pull Counteraction Measure Theory. I had the article all about it, but I lost the link. Anyways here is a picture.





















http://files.automotiveforums.com/gallery/watermark.php?file=/500/240896space_travel.JPG

http://files.automotiveforums.com/gallery/watermark.php?file=/500/240896space_travel.JPG

Did you do that all by yourself Rick? You should be a teacher at M.I.T. for that one.

Not true. If you move a body here it will affect an object 50,000 light years away by gravity. This force is weak, but instant. Here is the theory to travel faster than light:
ALL particles react to gravity, so if you can manipulate that force, say align the particles in a cetin fashion, you could digitize an object as a pattern of aligned particles and send it along this aligned path. Sort of like a water hose. You have aliened the hose as a conduit and send the water through it.
Yes, this is over simplified but there is the thought that light is not an ending point, just a barrier that needs to be breached.
If you, being the digitized aligned particles, can reassemble at the other end of the conduit, you travel faster than light. Instantly you are somewhere else.
Now, apply that to beings, in a ship, (so you can travel normally when you get there) go down this same conduit. You, your things and your ship arrive at the destination without degradation of time, thus faster than light.

Now apply that to my Ion engine in my Avay, and I go very fast. :)


Ok, I know this is an old thread and all, but I just have to say this right here is the largest pile of crap I have ever seen.

1.) "If you move a body here it will affect an object 50,000 light years away by gravity. This force is weak, but instant."

While true that gravitational forces can influence objects over very, very large distances; gravity is a WEAK force, and it is NOT instant. If someone were able to instantly remove the sun from our solar system we would see the sun "go away" before the Earth would leave its orbital path. Not get flung off into space without knowing what happened.

2.) "Here is the theory to travel faster than light:"

Nice to see that you have come up with a way to compleatly defy basic laws of phyisics all on your own. Where did you get your doctorate again?

3.) "ALL particles react to gravity, "

Technically true, though gravity is infinatly weaker than electromagnitism. You know, that force that just happens to bond particles together into atoms, and groups atoms together into elements and such.

4.) "so if you can manipulate that force, say align the particles in a cetin fashion, you could digitize an object as a pattern of aligned particles and send it along this aligned path."

This is complete and utter horse sh*t. How in the name of god do you use a weak force to manipulate a strong force? Thats like saying im gonna have my 4 year old push my car home, uphill, when all of the tires are blown out, while I sit in the car and try to stear. On top of that you make it sound like "aligning" particles is just getting them to stand in a straight line. In order to align a sub-atomic particle you must know its speed and its direction. Quantim theory says that the more you define the speed of a particle the more you change the direction, and vice versa (i.e. its impossible to determine one, without changing the other.) All anyone can do is figure out what is most probable. Which means you can't accurately store data since you would never know if it was stored right. Immagine trying to write a note to someone in the dark, and you arent even sure your note is on the paper.

5.) "Yes, this is over simplified but there is the thought that light is not an ending point, just a barrier that needs to be breached."

Im assuming by "light" you mean the speed of light. And no, actually you and the flat earth society are the only crackpots that think this is possible. No object with Mass can travel through space faster than light, PERIOD.

6.) "If you, being the digitized aligned particles, can reassemble at the other end of the conduit, you travel faster than light. Instantly you are somewhere else."

........ Im not even sure you know what your babbeling about now.

7.) "Now, apply that to beings, in a ship, (so you can travel normally when you get there) go down this same conduit. You, your things and your ship arrive at the destination without degradation of time, thus faster than light."

So lets see, your taveling down a conduit, faster than light, as a stream of data. What happens if the conduit breaks while your headed down it at more than 299,792,458 meters per second? No one could signal you to tell you because your going faster then it would take for them to tell you. (P.S. Time doesn't "Degradate," degradation is the act of eroding or breaking up.)

8.) "Now apply that to my Ion engine in my Avay, and I go very fast."

Wait, what!!!!??? Why do you need an engine, your supposedly traveling as a stream of data through a "conduit." You really have no idea what your talking about do you?

In summary: shut mouth and pick up a freaking book sometime.

You want to know how someone would travel the stars?
Most Likely:
A.) Conventional sub-light speeds (whose to say aliens don't live for thousands if not millions of years?
B.) Super gravity fields "bend" space so that the place where you are and the place where you want to be are relativly "close" then travel the short distance, and turn off the field letting space unfold. They give a good example in the movie Event Horizon, bas as the rest of the science is.
C.) Some as of yet unknown area (to us) of phyiscs uncovering something. Such as String Theory, Wormhole Theory, Pandimensional Theory, ect...

isn't it obvious ? basically there are small alien hamsters, on small alien hamster wheels, the wheels drive big alien tubimes via a 14-speed scania truck transmission (taken from earth) the turbines create "anti matter" in front of the ship and they anti matter works as a vacuum to pull the ship into the on-coming space, it's all simple european scania mechanics, simple.

It is probaly something verry small and simple. I try not to think complicated on things I do not know. If I see an alien I will ask his secret and hijack his ship. And hold him hostage, and make him show me how to make the crop circles.

hey, thats way simpler than bothering to work it out, simce when did "car enthusiasts" do super-physics anyway even though i'm doing physics A-level in the UK for my uni course (motorsport engineering)

but karmacae,

i think you found the solution, besides who needs particle acceleraters when you can make crop-circles ?

They teleport. (Duh!) They have metal detector like things attached to black holes and they jump inside them to go to where-ever they desire.

<sarcasm> Some ppl are SOOO stupid :D </sarcasm>

Magnetism has very little to do with gravity. And even with magnetics, if you put a magnet at the end of a pole with something ferrous near it, it wouldnt go anywhere becasue the force of the magnet pulling on the object is exactly balanced by the force of the object pushing on the pole.


Just got done watching the History Channel and they had this hour long session or w/e about magnets. It is true that they are testing this at NASA, it's something to do with the magnets being put at the front of the ship, and then it does something with the plasma produced by the sun and other planets. I'm not sure how it works and can't directly state from the History Channel but you're right, the magnet idea is being tossed around to travel farther into space.

Sorry buddy, you can't lift yourself into the air by pulling on your boot straps. Unless of course you managed to incorperate either a Honda w/ a VTEC, or an RX7.

So far, Peanuts reply is the only one worth looking at.

Going back to the original topic, we cannot possibly hypothesize an alien propulsion system. Everything we know tobe true is based on our laws of science and understanding. Our method of perception may not be the correct one, and we are always learning news things, many times the very fundamental laws of science have been change in light of new theories.

Just trying to imagine what an alien world would be like is all but inconceivable, anything you came up with would be based on human technology, ideas and beliefs.

Sorry to give this thread a harsh turn, but the question is fairly out there. The only correct answer would have to come from something that has never been in contact with humans.

I'm hoping there's something out there though, perhaps they've parelled our technology or are superior, in that case, not a single thing we believe to be true would matter.

materia cant travel in lightspeed cuz the mass would get infinite or something

IMO the best way to space travel is when we fully developes the fusion reactor (wich isn't going too well) and with it, we'll be able to produce energy through the bare vacuum in space, and I read somewhere that you can burn energy/electricity. A rocket engine with infinite fuel.. though it wouldn't be that extreme high velocity but enough for travels to mars and stuff maybe, and its possible for it to be done in the next 50years if we could lay down some for fundation in fusion research and not blow our selfs up with a nuclear war

IMO the best way to space travel is when we fully developes the fusion reactor (wich isn't going too well) and with it, we'll be able to produce energy through the bare vacuum in space, and I read somewhere that you can burn energy/electricity. A rocket engine with infinite fuel.. though it wouldn't be that extreme high velocity but enough for travels to mars and stuff maybe, and its possible for it to be done in the next 50years if we could lay down some for fundation in fusion research and not blow our selfs up with a nuclear war

You still need fuel for an engine of any kind, and last time I checked there is no Hydrogen gas stations between Earth and Mars. Supposing the gas tank lasts long enough to go there and back I doub't you be able to get to any nearby solar systems since the tank would be so huge its mass would limit its acceleration. Not to mention a trip at even light speed to the second nearest star (our sun being the closest) would take hundreds of years.

You still need fuel for an engine of any kind, and last time I checked there is no Hydrogen gas stations between Earth and Mars. Supposing the gas tank lasts long enough to go there and back I doub't you be able to get to any nearby solar systems since the tank would be so huge its mass would limit its acceleration. Not to mention a trip at even light speed to the second nearest star (our sun being the closest) would take hundreds of years.


erm.... when you're in space, free of gravity, push yourself in one direction and you keep going that way even after you stop pushing.

erm.... when you're in space, free of gravity, push yourself in one direction and you keep going that way even after you stop pushing.

I didn't clarify myself. Srry
I meant that assuming you want to bring people on this trip your gonna need to make light, heat, air pressure, clean air, and probably electrical power for them to survive. So your gonna need fuel to power whatever systems are generating all this for you. If your going outside our solar system on a multiple hundred year journey the gas tank would be so huge that it would make your trip take longer.

There are also many uses for magnets that were not mentioned, like the MRI. It uses magnetic fields to "see" into you like a colorful X-ray. Also they are used to hold things on the fridge. As for propelling a ship through space....when they conquor earth may be the aliens will tell us

Ever look at the table of ellements? Wouldn't you think that on the other side of the universe there might be materials there that would make the energy we get from an atomic bomb look like a sparkler?

Ion power... is teh shit... Unlimited top speed it just keeps propelling because the energy level just keeps expanding. Thats what they use for deep space probes now.

and are you aware how long it takes for this system to get up to any useful speed?
while you're (very) slowly accelerating, you still need fuel/food to keep passengers alive, all of which means more mass, which means even slower acceration.
there's a reason why they (can) use it for probes and that's because they have an operation time frame of years and sometimes, tens of years and do not require life support.

Yes...

But this s all in good fun... relax man...

i am relaxed.
just pointing out a little extra fact in case someone else reads what you typed and takes it as absolute truth and begins to cite your post as "something they read" in another thread somewhere regarding propulsion systems.

there was an article in discover magazine about future propulsion systems. one that stood out to me was thes fusion ramjet. it has a big cone aty the front to collect matter floating in space adn uses it in a fusion reaction to propel it. another was using a giant sail powered by solar winds and a laser guided from earth. the downside was to power the laser you would need 6 times the amount of power used in the world in 1 second. youd have to build a big ass solar several miles wide to produce enough. but it was a fast method of traveling. then theres the good old star trek matter/antimatter reaction, still plausible.

except that in order for the star trek science to work, they had to invent a material (read: a form of matter) that was porous to anti-matter. simple common sense tells you that this is impossible.

there are ways (not sure if they've actually managed to do it yet) to not quite contain anti-matter in a semi safe environment but the practicalities of doing such, is more or less pointless.

and your post reminds me of something else.
in space, you do still have friction as the vacuum of space isn't actually 100% nothing.
the best vacuums are man made.

You still need fuel for an engine of any kind, and last time I checked there is no Hydrogen gas stations between Earth and Mars. Supposing the gas tank lasts long enough to go there and back I doub't you be able to get to any nearby solar systems since the tank would be so huge its mass would limit its acceleration. Not to mention a trip at even light speed to the second nearest star (our sun being the closest) would take hundreds of years.

Actually the nearest star is Alpha Centauri at a little over 4 years, if we could travel at light-speed. But I'm not sure why anyone would want to go there, as it has no planets.

there are ways (not sure if they've actually managed to do it yet) to not quite contain anti-matter in a semi safe environment but the practicalities of doing such, is more or less pointless.

Yeah, im pretty sure they have contained it, but i don't see a point at this stage other than its interesting. Hopefully as science develops they can make use of it.

actually proxima centauri is closer than alpha but its only a red dwarf.

oh woops, well at least i got the system and the distance...

haha actually i hear alot of sources say the closest is alpha and alot say proxima. but im pretty sure proxima is closer. its weird how even at the speed of light which is hundreds of times faster than anything we have today it would still take 4 years. our best efforts for long travel havent even reached past our solar system. ie voyager.

Where is voyager now? past neptune?

i think so. well prob. make a ship in the near future that will pass it up on a journey into deep space and laugh at how slow it is. lol