Final Flight of the Bellerophon

A case of some reimagining of Forbidden Planet (1956) where C57-D was a faster than light ship, but the Bellerophon was only capable of light speed.

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www.paypal.com/paypalme/newdiv…

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In my reimagining, C57-D's FTL capabilities were based on this:

www.deviantart.com/newdivide17…

While the Bellerophon's light speed capabilities were based on this:

www.deviantart.com/newdivide17…

In this case, the Bellerophon is driven by gravity waves for interstellar travel at light speed.

The engine with the dish and 3 gravity wave engine nacelles works like Project: Orion where Orion drops thermonuclear bombs out the back, and detonates them to propel the ship through space with a shield to protect the ship from the blast.

But instead of using fusion bombs, the 3 gravity nacelles "detonates" gravity waves behind the ship, and the waves propel the ship to light speed for a very brief time -- so much they have to repeat the process every second.  Since there's probably going to be time dilation, 32 times a second on the ship, once a second in normal space.

I already did the math.

I know, what about that catapult that propels ships using gravity waves?  The catapult only has a range of 2 billion kilometres.  And in order to extend its range, you'll probably need the power of the Death Star just to get the ship to Proxima Centauri -- let alone Altair.

The idea is the FTL ships use warp drive to explore the galaxy, bring back their findings, and a light speed ship sends colonists to that planet provided the planet is habitable for humans, and isn't occupied by intelligent life.


Back on topic, for the Bellerophon that's travelling to 16.7 LYs to Altair, it would still take the ship 16.7 years to get there.  But with time dilation -- say 0.9995 times light speed -- 193 days.

I did the math using the Omni calculator:

www.omnicalculator.com/physics…

Why not just give the Bellerophon warp drive, or have a warp capable tug ship bring the colonists there with their gear?

The Bob Lazar warp drive needs antimatter, and the antimatter ring, power conversion, particle accelerators, etc the ship needs to recharge its antimatter supply, warp drive used like that would extremely cost prohibitive.  As opposed to a gravity wave light speed drive directly powered by fusion.

So there's only in comparison a handful of FTL ships like C57-D.  And a light speed gravity drive -- though costly -- is FAR more disposable.  The catapult is only useful within the solar system.

Not like the aftermath of The Burn on Star Trek: Discovery with the loss of dilithium crystals, but obtaining -- say -- unobtainium from Avatar (2009).

It's possible that the gravity wave engine might be installed in a standard fusion engine housing, but I'm thinking in reality, it isn't and needs all that hardware since I doubt gravity waves can be used as "propellant" like in a fusion engine.

Then again, the gravity wave engine may be like trying to pull yourself up by your own show laces.

But, who knows?

Then there's also interstellar debris.  The Lazar warp drive has a heart shaped warp field, and if like on, "Cold Front," a subspace displacement field at the points of the gravity beams.  So if my understanding is right, then hopefully the displacement field could also displace the debris, moving it behind the ship.

The gravity wave engine, I can see it collecting debris putting the ship at risk en route like what this video claims:

youtu.be/SBBWJ_c8piM

Or it might be pushed out of the way since the wave "pushes" the ship as it "surfs" the wave, like large boats as it displaces water like some incidences with the Titanic.  Especially since much of the debris is the size of dust particles.

If I knew, I wouldn't have to keep posting my PayPal link.

On my Forbidden Planet (1956) reimagining, once the Bellerophon drops off the colonists, the ship's A.I. would return the ship to Earth with the status of the colonists when it left.  If the Bellerophon fails to return in say 35 years, they send C57-D to investigate.

Like on Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), "I'm not worried about you, I'm worried about the refrigerator!"

Gee, thanks.