From: skunk-works-digest-owner@mail.orst.edu To: skunk-works-digest@mail.orst.edu Subject: Skunk Works Digest V5 #391 Reply-To: skunk-works-digest@mail.orst.edu Errors-To: skunk-works-digest-owner@mail.orst.edu Precedence: bulk Skunk Works Digest Monday, 21 August 1995 Volume 05 : Number 391 In this issue: Su-35 Re: Faster Than Light Travel Re: Faster Than Light Travel See the end of the digest for information on subscribing to the skunk-works or skunk-works-digest mailing lists and on how to retrieve back issues. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Pionusman@aol.com Date: Sun, 20 Aug 1995 13:15:15 -0400 Subject: Su-35 In a recent Popular Science, there was an article about the F-22 (sound familiar.) The was about the simulator that the author got to test drive. The article said that there were 4 threats on the display, and they were Sukoi Su-35s. I have heard about the Su-27 (nato name "Flanker", but never the Su-35. Is it under development like the F-22, or is it just a made up aircraft. pionusman@aol.com PS What happend to The Su-28 through -34? ------------------------------ From: C.R.Harding@massey.ac.nz (Craig Harding) Date: Mon, 21 Aug 1995 09:35:41 +1200 Subject: Re: Faster Than Light Travel And while we're on the subject, what does this have to do with the Skunk Works? At 05:14 PM 8/18/95 EST, Terry Colvin wrote: >[From "The Sunday Times" (UK) 13th August 1995] > >ASTRONOMERS PREDICT FASTER THAN LIGHT SPACE TRAVEL > >It is boldly going where no reputable scientific body has gone before. >Contradicting Einstein, the normally conservative Royal Astronomical >Society is about to publish a report predicting that mankind will be able >to travel faster than the speed of light. > >The breakthrough means that Star Trek fantasies of interstellar >civilisations and voyages powered by warp drive are now no longer the >exclusive domain of science fiction writers. > >The report was written by Ian Crawford, an astronomer at University >College London, who believes not only that man will one day see stars at >close quarters, but that we had better start preparing ourselves for the >consequences, including contact with aliens. > >His paper, Some Thoughts On The Implications Of Faster-Than-Light Travel, >has been validated by independent referees in the scientific community >and will be published next month. Its publication coincides with the >formation by British and American scientists of the Interstellar >Propulsion Society (IPS) which is dedicated to finding a means of taking >astronauts to the stars. > >Crawford argues that modern physics may allow two possible ways around >Einstein's theory, which says that because bodies have infinite mass at >the speed of light, no amount of energy can make them go faster. > >The first is to pass through "wormholes", rifts in the fabric of space >caused by intense gravitational fields such as those found around the >collapsed stars known as black holes. > >Crawford says that such fields may allow the traveller to enter a >wormhole from one point and then to leave it at another, possibly >thousands of light years away. > >Previously, scientists have assumed that any astronaut who was caught in >such a powerful gravitational field would be pulled into something >resembling a piece of spaghetti. > >However, Crawford said last week that recent research had suggested >wormholes could be stabilised and manipulated to create short cuts >between any two points in space. "The proofs are complex and >mathematical, but more and more astrophysicists are satisfied that in >theory it is possible," he said. > >Should wormholes fail, however, Crawford proposes a second possible route >to the stars. He draws on a recent paper by Miguel Alcubierre, of the >University of Wales, in the journal Classical and Quantum Gravity to >suggest the possibility of propulsion systems which distort space by >compressing it in front of a spaceship while expanding it behind. > >Such a system would effectively bend space, creating a form of "warp >drive" reminiscent of the Starship Enterprise of Captain James T Kirk in >Star Trek. > >The theories will boost growing interest among scientists in the >possibility of travelling faster than light. The IPS, whose members >include several NASA engineers, starts its first conference shortly in >Halifax, Nova Scotia. > >Patrick Moore, the astronomer and presenter of The Sky At Night, said he >believed interstellar travel would one day be achieved. "Television would >have seemed impossible 200 years ago and faster than light travel is no >more outrageous than that," he said. > >Arthur C Clarke, the science fiction writer and futurologist, was equally >enthusiastic. His first novel, Against The Fall Of Night, published in >1932, presumed that man would be able to travel faster than light. > >Speaking from his home in Colombo, Sri Lanka, he said: "That was just a >dramatic device which all science fiction writers have to use in space >travel, but I have always believed it may one day be possible." > >Sir Martin Rees, the astronomer royal and professor of astronomy at >Cambridge University, was more cautious, however, saying the proofs were >purely theoretical. > > > - -- Craig Harding Editor, Massey University Television Production Centre "I don't know about God, I just think we're handmade" - Polly ------------------------------ From: C.R.Harding@massey.ac.nz (Craig Harding) Date: Mon, 21 Aug 1995 10:38:24 +1200 Subject: Re: Faster Than Light Travel At 09:35 AM 8/21/95 +1200, Craig Harding wrote: >And while we're on the subject, what does this have to do with the Skunk Works? > >At 05:14 PM 8/18/95 EST, Terry Colvin wrote: >>[From "The Sunday Times" (UK) 13th August 1995] >> >>ASTRONOMERS PREDICT FASTER THAN LIGHT SPACE TRAVEL Sorry folks, that one was meant to go back to Terry Colvin only. My apologies. -- C. - -- Craig Harding Editor, Massey University Television Production Centre "I don't know about God, I just think we're handmade" - Polly ------------------------------ End of Skunk Works Digest V5 #391 ********************************* To subscribe to skunk-works-digest, send the command: subscribe skunk-works-digest in the body of a message to "majordomo@mail.orst.edu". If you want to subscribe something other than the account the mail is coming from, such as a local redistribution list, then append that address to the "subscribe" command; for example, to subscribe "local-skunk-works": subscribe skunk-works-digest local-skunk-works@your.domain.net To unsubscribe, send mail to the same address, with the command: unsubscribe skunk-works-digest in the body. 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