526K views · Mar 1, 2019 · 17:34 · 3 HN recommenders · 4 mentions · discussed 2019–2023
Astrophysicist David Kipping presents the halo drive, a proposed way to propel a starship to a good fraction of light speed by gaining energy from a black hole. The video is based on his peer-reviewed paper and explains why energy is the main obstacle to interstellar flight.
Why Hacker News points people here: HN readers point to it as a clear explanation of a theoretical fuel-free propulsion concept from a channel they respect.
“Prof. Kipping is well known for his Cool Worlds youtube channel, which is fantastic.”HN comment, 2023
“Prof. Kipping is well known for his Cool Worlds youtube channel, which is fantastic.”
Kipping explains his Halo Drive idea on his fantastic channel.
Prof. Kipping is well known for his Cool Worlds youtube channel, which is fantastic. He created a video on his Halo Drive idea: this video
“The halo drive concept is interesting.”
Explains fuel-free propulsion via a black hole gravity assist.
The halo drive concept is interesting. It uses a beam of light to extract gravity energy from a black hole and use to to maintain acceleration of your ship. Almost no fuel needed because its really just a kind of extreme gravity assist that we’ve been doing since what, the 1970s? this video
“it's a very nice theoretical concept”
Theoretical light-based propulsion concept.
also, you can use light, instead of matter. Termed the "halo drive", it's a very nice theoretical concept: this video
Cites a specific point in the video on travel cost.
If you have the technology to reach the nearest binary blackhole ( "you just have to pay the one-time fee of the cost to reach the nearest binary black hole system" , at 16:12 min in this video: this video ), you can most likely deal with the mirror/energy harvesting problem as well.
