NASA Funds Sci-Fi Technology

Michael Huang writes "Wired News profiles the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC), the $4 million-a-year agency most famous for Bradley Edwards' study of the space elevator. Lesser known studies include weather control, shape-shifting space suits and antimatter-powered probes to Alpha Centauri. Remember, 'if it's not risky, it's not going to get funded'."

Comments

Re:Reminds me of a quote

[antic]

Gordon Moore: "If everything you try works, you're not trying hard enough."

And adapted for Slashdot:

"If you're hard, you're not trying to work enough."

;)

Blueprints are already available...

[GaryOlson]

for this long term project. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0671 500937/102-4406470-8931340?v=glance

hmmmm

[dnamaners]

Sounds neat but i am having real problems with the physics. but i bet most people that read about it would ....

They say a ribbon about a meter wide and 2 millimeters thick can do this. well OK ill give them that if that ribbon was constructed it may in deed be just that perfectly capabel of supporting that strain (this is a stretch by itself). However the plan to put that big thing into service required that a small one first be used. The small one will have to be one microns tick. this is gonna be the real sticker. How will you expect that to survive all the wind, and elemental forces assuming that you can get it attached inthe first place.

I can see quite a few good lighting strikes and other interesting upper atmosphere charge effects splitting this up real good. Then let the wind just rip it lengthwise and then try to run a climber up it. All i can say is if you could do this you better start it off with a conciderable amount (perhaps 10% or more) of its final strength, and perhaps investigate a way to lower the cable from orbit. As an aside, can you imagine the effects of an airplane strike on this thing.

Well the best hope in my humbel opinion is the research may lead to better materials for seatbelts and bullet proof vests ..... the world needs a better 10 micron seatbelt.... or better yet maybe a monofiliment whip.....

Re:What?

[dontbgay]

uhmmmmmmm... on the contrary. try this on for size. I hear it's a decent game.

Re:What?

[linzeal]

Yeah, I know. Check this out though, that is the game I want for Christmas.

Re:What?

[drinkypoo]

I don't know anything about the game but the CIA doing that is retarded. Haven't they ever heard of roleplaying games? In which anything is possible, and you are not limited by a game engine? Idiots. Not to mention that with their resources the CIA could create an entire support infrastructure where they used computers to model the effects of explosions and such, so you'd get the best of both worlds.

Ever since I first read Zelazny's Amber series I've wondered how you could most effectively play the game. While the mind's eye can quite adequately provide a representation for players in most circumstances, I would very much like to have visualization tools at my disposal. My basic idea is a sort of combination first person shooter-style game and game editor which cooperate in realtime. Terrain could be stored in a central game engine. The storyteller would have available to them essentially the combination of CAD, the controls available in the average god game (raise and lower terrain for example), and the controls available in the average FPS level editor. Players could then interact on this landscape and the game master/referee/what have you could manipulate it as is appropriate.

Combined with some sort of reality overlay-type system it would be a really amazingly cool way to play games - or a good way to drive someone to psychosis.

MOD PARENT +6

[gomel]

Imagine the investor response if GE said "We are going to build a space elevator, it will take us at least 25 years to complete it and cost the majority of our R&D budget for the whole time frame". That investor money would be voluntarily moved to Microsoft where (relatively) short term growth is much more likely.

Rather than say "a dollar spent on NASA pipe dreams is a dollar taken from the public" I would say "A dollar spend on a NASA pipe dream is a dollar invested in the public's future". Not all investments pan out but many do.


Exactly! Let me just add something:

In some cases people who profit most are not those who pay the cost. The benefits are often externalized either in the form of lower prices through technology progress or by intellectual property moving into public domain (after some time). DARPA spend a lot of money on developing the predecessor of the Internet, which in turn reduced the cost of communication dramatically. They do not demand any royalties because of that.

Companies need to have a shorter investment horizon than a government. Imagine an investment project whose costs are $10bln, but the profits are an expected cash flow of $200bln after 15 years. No company will invest, because it probably won't exist that long. But a government can do that because it is essentially immortal.