Thursday, February 23, 2012

If it worked on Star Blazers...

"We're off in outer space...we're leaving mother Earth..."

Breaking news from Graymalkin:

"Just watching a show on the science channel.  They are talking about using a nuclear submarine, blasting it up into the orbit of the moon, filling up a football sized donut shaped bladder with water from the moon, spinning the donut around the submarine to create gravity and using the water from the bladder for energy through steam as a propulsion system.  sorry about the crappy sentence structure, but I'm tired today so I'm not bothering with editing...   ;)  Anyway, as they were talking about how easy inexpensive it would be as a transport system to and from other planets, it sounded so identical to Star Blazers!!!!"

For the uninitiated, the Star Blazers that Graymalkin refers to is a seminal and extraordinary anime series from the mid 1970s.  In it, Earth is threatened with extinction as it is continually assaulted by an alien race called The Gamilons.  There is one hope for Earth's survival: an element on the planet Iscandar.  The problem: we have to go get it ourselves.  To do so,  Japan's World War II battleship the Yamato (in the American translation it was the Argo) is converted into a formidable spaceship, complete with a carrier bay for fighters and the inordinately powerful Wave Motion Gun.  Click the link and you'll see that the Yamato is basically one massive gun.

I'm interested in the fundamentals behind this proposed "submarine in space" project.  I'm also curious about the principles behind the "spinning football of Moon water."  It has often been remarked that life aboard a nuclear submarine is comparable to a long space voyage, so that would be a proper baseline for the human factor in things.  The question I have is the initial power it would take to launch a submarine from Earth towards the Moon.  Just think of the force required to send one Apollo spacecraft to our lonely satellite...and they were nowhere near the size of one of our standard submarines.  Of course if our government were ever to openly disclose the alien technology that it has in its possession, that might clear things up right away.  But that's an entirely different can of tuna.
Sadly, I'm unable to find a link for further information on Graymalkin's submarine in space.  That is not to say that I question him.  His word to me is unimpeachable.  Maybe he can provide a link for an in-depth look.  The closest I've come is a Space.com link about the Air Force proposing nuclear reactors for spacecraft.

Regardless, I think the "submarine in space" proposal is a cool concept.  If it ever really does fly, I will argue heavily that the spacecraft be named The Yamato. Even if it be before a plenum of Congress.

As always, a big thanks to Graymalkin for this!



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