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Astronomy 4800 – Space Science: Practice & Policy

ASTR 4800 - Space Science: Practice & PolicyToday: The Technology of Star Trek

• Homework:– Next Class: Guest Lecture by Dr. Fran Bagenal – The JUNO

mission to Jupiter. Review JUNO website on class webpage.– Business Plan: Draft presentation slides due on April 17.

Astronomy 4800 – Space Science: Practice & Policy

Astronomy Day

Saturday, April 15, 2017

Noon – 10 pm

Live science talks

Telescope viewing

Planetarium shows

Hands-on activities FR

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www.colorado.edu/fiske sbo.colorado.edu

The Science of Star TrekJeremy Muesing and Odysseus Quarles Technology We Have

Real or In Progress Today

Replicators: Star Trek

Creates matter from energy, on demand

Food, clothing, and tools

Industry and manufacturing

E= mc2: must be very energy intensive

Replicators: Reality

3D Printers

Print solids on demand

Food, clothing, and tools

Industry and manufacturing

Medicine and health

Small energy requirements

Limited versatility

What unexpected applications are being found for

3D printers today? What could we see in the next

few decades?

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Universal Translator: Star Trek

Able to instantly translate any alien

language in real time

Even previously unencountered languages

Universal Translator: Reality

Google translate

Free to use

Near real time translation

Augmented reality for foreign words

Database of 64 languages (and growing)

Communicators: Star Trek

A novel idea: portable, long-range telephones!

Instantaneous surface-to-orbit or ship-to-ship

communication

Tune the frequency with a dial!

Flips open!

Multifunctionality

Multitasking

Audio and video calls

Interactive touchscreen

Communicators: Reality

Still not as stylish as communicators

Data

Major character from The

Next Generation

Works alongside human(oid)

officers as their equal

Physically and mentally

superior to human(oid)s

Tasked with increasing his

own humanity

Androids:Star Trek

Robots that look human

Mimic human motions and

complex tasks

Computers that act human

Complex pattern

recognition

Machine learning

Faster computations

Androids: Reality

Do you think Data would function similarly, or will such a creation constantly be feared and fought against?

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Technology We Don’t HaveTheoretical… or complete hogwash

Faster-Than-Light Travel: Star Trek

Uses the collision of matter and antimatter to create massive amounts of energy

Warps space around the ship to exceed the speed of light (“Warp Drive”)

“Faster-Than-Light” Travel: Theory

Use massive amounts of energy to create

a wormhole

Theoretically possible, but well beyond

what we can do

Correct endpoint location?

Correct endpoint time?

Stable wormhole?

“Faster-Than-Light” Travel: Theory

Use massive amounts of energy to warp

space

Theoretically possible, but well beyond

what we can do

Energy requirements

Negative mass?

Exotic matter?

Negative mass, exotic matter, and immense power requirements -- do you think it’s plausible that this technology could exist? In the next century?

Transporter: Star Trek

Able to teleport people or

cargo thousands of miles,

instantly

“Transporter Accidents” can

make two people from

one, or one person from

two

Transporter: Theory

Instantaneous transfer of

information

Quantum-level scanning of a

whole person?

Exact 1:1 copying destroys the

original (No Cloning

Theorem)

What would the implications of such events be?

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In Summary

What did Star Trek get right?What did it get wrong?

Star Trek technology

Too advanced? Too much of the

same?

What else?

Physics?

Biology?

Societies?

References

Krauss, Lawrence Maxwell., and S. W. Hawking. The Physics of Star Trek. London: Flamingo, 1997. Print.

Star Trek: The Original Series, The Next Generation, Voyager, Deep Space Nine, and Enterprise. Paramount, 1967-2005.