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Interstellar Flight: Perspectives and Patience

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93 points JPLeRouzic | 2 comments | 25 Jun 25 16:35 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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os2warpman ◴[25 Jun 25 17:54 UTC] No.44380049[source]▶
>To get around thousand-year generation ships, we are examining some beamed energy solutions that could drive a small sail to Proxima in 20 years.

The odds of a spacecraft hitting a single particle of dust while in space are 100%.

A spacecraft hitting a single particle of dust at 0.2c will impart tens of millions of joules into the body of the spacecraft, the equivalent of getting hit with hundreds of pulses from the most powerful laser ever created by humanity-- simultaneously.

Or concentrating several kilogram's worth of TNT into the size of a particle of dust and detonating it.

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1. awongh ◴[25 Jun 25 18:52 UTC] No.44380687[source]▶
Are there any real proposals that deal with this issue for a vehicle that would carry humans and go fast? Something that's not "energy shields".

Edit to add: we basically understand the physics of accelerating something to a high speed, what it would need to be made from, etc., afaik all within the realm of possibility- if we could gather and direct that much energy and then wait long enough to decelerate at the other end.

It seems like the questions that are completely unaswered are: keeping people alive and healthy for that long, and how the ship could survive if it hit something.

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2. JumpCrisscross ◴[25 Jun 25 19:20 UTC] No.44380954[source]▶
> Are there any real proposals that deal with this issue for a vehicle that would carry humans and go fast?

Whipple shields [1].

> Something that's not "energy shields"

The interstellar medium contains lots of charged particles [2]. Electromagnetic deflection is perfectly realistic.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whipple_shield

[2] https://www.space.com/interstellar-space-definition-explanat...