Could you explain further your talk re long duration debilitating g-forces that an accelerating space traveler would experience even when away from Earth or other large bodies creating gravity? Wouldn’t g-forces diminish when astronauts have reached cruising speed? A mini follow up web video would help.

Question # 4 copied below from Responses to “More Bad Universe Episode 2 teasers!” is probably widely pondered;
“4. GreyDuck Says:
October 5th, 2010 at 11:38 am

So… why would a space traveler be pulling high-Gs for long periods of time? Wouldn’t they be enjoying NO Gs for most of the journey…?’

Obviously, some people, aka pilots, are flying under these circumstances all the time, for several years.

If an alien astronaut would be on a ship flying across space, he would have received the proper training before take off of course. The training you didn’t go through.

And you are also assuming that the alien tech would be restrained to our knowledge of physics and technology. Maybe they would have found a way around the G’s.

If you can sustain 1g then the stars are easily within reach. Higher accelerations will cut down the shipboard time but they won’t really make that big a change in Earth time.

That said, I think the issues brought up in the show SHOULD have been:

1) Space is REALLY, REALLY, REALLY big. I get the sense sometimes that folks just don’t realize how far the stars actually are and how much of an effort it would be to get there.

2) The energy involved in getting a spacecraft of any appreciable size to near light speed is mind-bogglingly huge. Flying to another star system, say 1000 ly away, to take over a planet and use its resources makes about much sense as flying to Australia (from the US) to get the raw materials for a sandwich.

“For all those jealous of Phil’s ride: The fun quotient in about any aerobatic light aircraft is just about as high.”

Sometimes, even more so. The really high-performance aerobatic birds can perform some downright ridiculous maneuvers. To (mis)quote Ed Hamill, “You can’t go Mach in a Pitts, but you can’t lomcevak in an F-16.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQpnzMJRtCU&feature=related

While this is correct, it doesn’t address the other problems with g-suits, even if the aliens decided to fly standing up. G-suits are transient helpers. The bladders inflate during a turn and then relax at normal (or at least lower) g-forces. If they were active all the time you’d have no lower extremities in a really short while.

- Jack

Correct. If you were, say, the Robinson family and wanted to head to Alpha Centauri, you could do the boost-and-coast method. After getting to solar escape velocity (~36,000 MPH/58.000 Km/hr) you could coast the 4.2 light years, but it would take 78,000 years to get there. If you had a magical ship like the Jupiter 2 that can accelerate continuously at 1g, the trip is reduced to 5.8 years with a mid-flight turnaround velocity of 95%c. Those are ground years. To the crew (undergoing the accelerations) the trip would seem like 3.5 years due to relativistic effects.

BTW, I didn’t just pull those numbers out of a hat. There’s a new ARA Press book on the making of the “Lost in Space” pilot coming out in about a month. Stay tuned!

- Jack

True, for just a ride there will be no jet engine involved. ( Unless you spend big $ and ride a russian Mig. ) But you can fly (and even buy) one of these yourselves!

–Airplane nut

When is Bad Universe coming to Europe (specifically the Netherlands)? Can’t wait to see it.

“That was some really great footage. I felt a visceral reaction; I could actually imagine what it’d be like (but I’m sure my conception of it is still rather weak)”

I’ve pulled 4-5g unassisted (no g-suit) in light airplanes before (I’ve experienced aerobatic flight in both a Bellance Decathlon and a Cessna 150 Aerobat). To get an even better idea of how it feels, imagine this. Imagine that you’re sitting in a chair, and someone comes along and attaches tethers to your face and body. Then, all of a sudden, he quickly attaches half a ton of weights to the other end of the tethers. Everything suddenly feels like it weighs 5 times as much as it usually does – you’re body’s trying to squish itself into your seat cushion, and it takes a lot of effort to even attempt to lift up an arm or your head. That’s the best way I can describe the sensation, anyway.

http://www.yourdiscovery.com/uk/

Did you have the right stuff?

Of course, an interplanetary or interstellar flight need not be pulling so many gee’s constantly methinks.

That’s also called the ‘grunt’ maneuver, and it’s notionally just like straining on the pot. It helps, even with the flight suit, and the flight suit helps more. Most people black out at 4-6 Gs w/o a flight suit, and the flight suit adds maybe a g or two to that.

—

You don’t really need to go terribly fast to get big Gs. You just need to be able to turn tight circles. Most any aircraft can manage that.

Since space is extremely tenuous yet for a spacecraft dust and gas will seem compressed at that speed, your ship will be akin to an ice breaker. You’ll have to precede your ship’s arrival in a given area with electromagnetic pulses (allowable at light speed) to push aside molecules or even pebbles and forge a vacuum tunnel.

Then you’ll have to figure out how to slow down relative to the frame of the destination. And there’s also maintaining life support, air, food, water, power, systems…or…relax and watch it all solved on Star Trek reruns.

29.4m/s^2 is 3g acceleration. At that rate you would reach 1c in just under 4 months.

That was some really great footage. I felt a visceral reaction; I could actually imagine what it’d be like (but I’m sure my conception of it is still rather weak).

I really want to watch this series, but Discovery UK doesn’t have any plans to air it, to my knowledge.