Re:Earth-like planet spotted orbiting Sun’s closest star
by ffhhj on Friday February 11, 2022 @08:52AM
(#30301472)
Right, also the hull must resist the impact against hidrogen atoms at near the speed of light, which would apply tremendous forces. Dust will be like exploding nukes.
Re:Earth-like planet spotted orbiting Sun’s closest star
by Udo on Friday February 11, 2022 @07:09AM
(#30300449)
That's a good point. I have no idea actually where the practical limits would be, especially considering options that arise if the ship has access to a lot of electrical power to generate a protective magnetic field. But even at 0.3c, the trip to Proxima could still be worthwhile for an unmodified human.
Re:Earth-like planet spotted orbiting Sun’s closest star
by anders_p on Friday February 11, 2022 @09:05AM
(#30301611)
You still have the deceleration issue.
You need to use the same amount of energy and time to decelerate, as you did to accelerate.
So you'd only be able to sustain constant acceleration for half the distance. Then deceleration for the second half of the journey.
That would make the travel time much, much longer than your calculations, since you'd be traveling at relatively slow speed for both the first & last 20-25% of the distance.
Re:Earth-like planet spotted orbiting Sun’s closest star
by IHLayman on Friday February 11, 2022 @08:44AM
(#30301377)
Here’s a link to a Gizmodo article talking about the study… unfortunately I can’t get the original study to load: https://gizmodo.com/this-is-what-it-would-really-look-like-t...
Maybe someone has a link to more information, that’s just what I remember from years ago.