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Shufflingdead > Articles > Society
Real Life is Like Star Trek - Part 1
The real world is becoming more and more like a show on Sci-Fi all the time. I can even sort of prove it.
Technological Advances - Transparent Alumina
Usually confused with 'transparent aluminum' first made popular in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, transparent alumina has different properties.
Alumina is actually aluminum oxide, natural examples being rubies or sapphires. When you take alumina in small particles and sinter, or weld, them together at a high temperature it is basically transparent.
Transparent alumina has many startling properties. Being clear, it is the obvious choice to use in armoured vehicles and aircraft. When layers of transparent alumina are stacked and sintered together, and the right polishing techniques are applied, transparent alumina is stronger than steel at the same thickness, and many times stronger than bulletproof glass.
Technological Advances - Pulsed Energy Projectile
The Pulsed Energy Projectile, or PEP, was designed for, and by, the US military as a "less-lethal" weapon.
The PEP works by emitting a laser pulse invisible to the naked eye which, on contact with the target, vapourises a small area in a burst of plasma. This creates a shockwave of EMR that can damage nerve cells, and a burst of sound which can stun the target. It is powerful enough to be lethal if used to kill instead of incapacitate.
The weapon, even in its infancy works from up to 2km away, and is small enough to be mounted on vehicles and helicopters. It weighs in at just over 230kg.
Technological Advances - Commercial Spaceflight
In 2004 enterprising company Scaled Composites made history by making the first civilian sub-orbital spaceflight funded by commercial capital. Doing so they won the Ansari X-Prize and paved the way future voyages into space.
No longer bound in by government institutions that waste billions of dollars a year on a ever-burgeoning bureaucracy, solar-spaceflight could be within reach within our lifetimes. Plans are in the works for two suborbital vessels(the "Virgin SpaceShip" or VSS Enterprise, and the VSS Voyager) to begin carrying passengers over five years, starting in 2007 or 2008. Estimates show they need only 5,000 people willing to pay the $200,000 US pricetag over the five years to show a profit. Let's hope that they exceed that estimate.
That's it for this week. I hope to continue with even more examples of technological and societal advances that will prove the Star Trek theory in weeks to come.
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