How could it be possible? Astronauts and Time Travel

[Merowinger]

I am currently developing a screenplay called "THE CRASH". It is about two astronauts from the ISS, who return home. Something goes wrong during re-entry, and when they land no one picks them up. They drift across the ocean for days, and after another week or so, they reach a shore. Soon, they notice, that they have landed on Hawaii. When they reach the first city, they also notice, that they apparently have travelled fifty years into the future...

Now, my questions:

- Doesn´t astronauts who return home must get into some kind of quarantine?
- What must happen for a space ship to return to the earth in the future


Thank you for your answers.

Merowinger

 

[Nik]

Zap, Pow, Flash ??

Have the Castaways argue over it: Happens you've given them plenty of time...

Cosmic Strings ?? Mini-blackholes ?? Gamma-ray burster ?? One of those ill-understood 'sprites' etc above super-cell storms ?? Pick three from five ??

Snag: Russian ISS landers come down on LAND, proposed US & EU ferry-capsules will also head for land due lack of naval support...

Okay, so the ferry-capsule heads for eg Texas, but --lots of turbulence & FX etc-- when they come out of re-entry plasma sheath, there's open ocean to horizon...

Are instruments 'blown' ??

Does their GPS give daft readings ?? Remember GPS gives TIME & PLACE.

When they're sitting in raft, does their distress beacon not work ??

Beware 'Planet of the Apes' cliches-- unless they're ribbing each other !!

Hmm: you have not said if civilisation has collapsed... evidence being lack of radio noise & contrails & floating rubbish ??

 

[Merowinger]

Actually, I am not that far ahead yet, just had this idea about these two astronauts lost in the future. Darn, I didn´t think about PLANET OF THE APES, of course! No, my story would involve the two astronauts in their new surroundings, how would they cope with it. and so on. Was thinking of giving them some kind of mystery that comes with them, since they vanished all these years ago, so that´s basically it for now...

But thanks for your answer!

 

[sunsurf]

Coming too close to a neutron star or dwarf star could accellerate them to near lightspeed. On board a spaceship, a few days or weeks at, say, 80 percent of lightspeed could be several years for the rest of the universe. A good physics website or book would have the appropriate equations.

 

[Tyr]

Near lightspeed could work for getting them forward in time.
It goes like
Closer to lightspeed you are- the slower regular time gets
At lightspeed- time stops
Past lightspeed- you steadily go back in time
That's the major reason lightspeed is impossible.

This does sound very planet of the apes...

 

[Bulldawg85]

Seem to remember

I also seem to remember a tv series in the mid 1960's where a couple of astronauts went back in time to caveman days. It was a sitcom if I remember correctly.

 

[Cockroach]

- Doesn´t astronauts who return home must get into some kind of quarantine?
- What must happen for a space ship to return to the earth in the future

1. The early moon missions did and probably any mars missions will however it is not standard practise on orbital flights
2. Either must stay up for a long time or travel very close to the speed of light (3x10^8 m/s)

 

[Mr_ Bondoc]

To Escape...

In regards to the International Space Station, here is a link to the escape pod for the station should there be a need to evacuate:

http://www.exn.ca/iss/index.cfm?URL=http://www.exn.ca/iss/Evacuate.cfm

It looks like a small unpowered version of the space-shuttle that would detatch from the station in the event of an emergency.

For a space station to evacuate, there has to be a catastrophic equipment failure. In such an an emergency Mission Control would have to give the go ahead and walk through the process of landing the escape pod. Second a flight path has to be approved and established by Mission Control in coordination with the US Air Force, the FAA, and the Strategic Command Center in an effort to prevent the shuttle from colliding with any sattellites, civilian or military aircraft, and the to warn air/missile defense systems from firing. Remember, an object falling at the spped of shuttle re-entry looks remarkably like a misssile. Emergency personnel would be alerted to the site in an effort to provide immediate care...

One way an object could find itself thrown forward in time would be a powerful energy experiment. One theoretical idea is to attempt to simulate the "Big Bang" through the creation of a supercollidor. The problem is that if the experiment is "too successful", you have a situation wherein you have a miniature universe is created, warping the fabric of space-time. This is one reason scientists might want to conduct the experiment in orbit rather than on Earth....you might blow up a small city!!

 

[sunsurf]

That sitcom was "It's About Time".

Arthur C. Clarke suggested that one could suddenly "jump" from, say, .9 lightspeed to 1.1 lightspeed without accellerating through the intermediate velocities. Thus you'd avoid the impossibility of traveling at 1.0 lightspeed.

 

[zoomar]

First, if they are from the ISS, they will be in a Russian descent capsule and land someplace in central Asia, not floating on the ocean.

 

[Mr_ Bondoc]

Not Necessarily...

First, if they are from the ISS, they will be in a Russian descent capsule and land someplace in central Asia, not floating on the ocean.

The problem is that if there is an explosive decompression or explosion, there is no time to wait until central Asia comes on the map. The odds are that the crew members may just as well end up at at the Horn of Africa, based on the orbital flight pattern.

As for decontamination...Odds are that is the last of the problems of the astronauts. Consider this, with the lossand/or disppearence of the astronauts in a fiery ISS or shuttle explosion, the only logical conclusion is that they died. Their appearence 50 years later would be like the return of the pilots of Flight 007 from the Bermuda Triangle, unaged and claiming to have no memory after 1945. You will have every law-enforcement and intelligence agency interrogate them until doomsday....

 

[NHBL]

Aerospace defense systems and monitoring...

There is a snag here: The local radar systems will pick it up coming in, and will also be able to see it maneuver--hence it's NOT a random chunk of debris. At the very least, someone will overfly the site, and detect an antique space capsule drifting.
If the event that sends them forwards in tiome also creates the cliched electromagnetic storm, then they might not be spotted.
Incidently, with an explosive decompression accident, either everyone's dead before they can do anything, or they're in suits, and have a bit of time. For a truely hasty departure, perhaps there was a spacewalk ongoing, so some are low on air in their suits.
Can a Russian capsule even land at sea?

Just a few random thoughs.

 

[zoomar]

Can a Russian capsule even land at sea?

Yes. At the bottom of it. Plus, as a spacecraft designed to resist wide pressure changes, it might even survive all the way down, unpleasantly enough for the astronauts.

 

[sikitu]

Near lightspeed could work for getting them forward in time.
It goes like
Closer to lightspeed you are- the slower regular time gets
At lightspeed- time stops
Past lightspeed- you steadily go back in time
That's the major reason lightspeed is impossible.

This does sound very planet of the apes...

Well, according to Einstein, what happens is that time on board the ship passes differently than on Earth, i.e. for example one second on board is equal to 100 seconds on Earth. However, what also happens is that you increase the ship's mass continuously (it would be infinite when reaching lightspeed, thus you cannot reach lightspeed). You do not go back in time when you are faster than light (what you cannot be under the theory of relativity). The dilatation formula does not work in that case because it is "squareroot of (1 minus velocity squared/lightspeed squared)", and this will generate only complex numbers with v>c, not negative numbers.

Anyway, in a SciFi story of the 50s, this would be mainstream;-))

 

[Count Dearborn]

How about a "gravitational eddy"? It accellarates them, an they end up in a past. It could be something that only happens once in a millenium.

 

[fortyseven]

I thought of Planet of the Apes right away.

One way an object could find itself thrown forward in time would be a powerful energy experiment. One theoretical idea is to attempt to simulate the "Big Bang" through the creation of a supercollidor. The problem is that if the experiment is "too successful", you have a situation wherein you have a miniature universe is created, warping the fabric of space-time. This is one reason scientists might want to conduct the experiment in orbit rather than on Earth....you might blow up a small city!!

Ever read Flashforward by Robert J. Sawyer

 

[Mr_ Bondoc]

Ever read Flashforward by Robert J. Sawyer

Yes I have read that particular novel...I actually thought it was reminiscent of the "big event" stories by Philip Wylie (e.g. The Disappearence )

You could certainly create a situation wherein a Alcubierre "Warp Drive" is created by the explosion of a small superconductor experiment or the actual prototype of such a drive seems to malfunction. For more information, check out this link:

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/research/warp/ideachev.html

It's a pretty interesting idea for a FTL drive...

 

[fortyseven]

Yes I have read that particular novel...I actually thought it was reminiscent of the "big event" stories by Philip Wylie (e.g. The Disappearence )

I haven't read that. Is it good?

 

[Mr_ Bondoc]

About Reading....

I haven't read that. Is it good?

Flash Forward by Robert J. Sawyer is a novel wherein people are given a preview of their lives 30 years into the future as a strange side effect of a particle accelerator accident. There are some interesting explorations into the effects of knowing the future. Over all, you should check it out.

The Disappearence by Philip Wylie is a novel with clear ASB undertones. In it, men find themselves in a world without women. In that same moment, women find themselves in a world without men. It is pretty deep in terms of social commentary and it has a lot to say about the "war between the sexes"...This is one classic that should be read...