Re:Ways to travel at nearly the speed of light
by cheerlessbog on Saturday June 01, 2019 @03:13PM
(#20070939)
Right we don't know how to do it but it's not unphysical either. You almost surely couldn't push your own fuel but a scoop is at least not physically impossible.
The most problematic part is likely the fantastic particle and radiation flux that would impinge on the front of the craft.
Re:Ways to travel at nearly the speed of light
by stcredzero on Saturday June 01, 2019 @03:57PM
(#20071262)
You almost surely couldn't push your own fuel but a scoop is at least not physically impossible.
As far as we know, you always wind up with more drag than you can overcome by using what you scoop as fusion fuel.
The most problematic part is likely the fantastic particle and radiation flux that would impinge on the front of the craft.
Exploiting time dilation would probably be rendered impossible by this.
But what kind of specific impulse are we talking about? It has to be quite high, or you're talking about unphysical amounts of reaction mass. Even with photon rockets, we're talking about godlike amounts of energy. Or, we could find clever ways to circumvent the rocket equation.