Re:There’s No Planet B
by marcosdumay on Monday January 16, 2023 @01:29PM
(#34403839)
> And what power source would you use to move that massive ship, and keep the light and heat on between stars? (Antimatter, I guess?)
Fusion. If nobody made it obvious until now, well, fusion is the ultimate interstellar power source. Fuel is everywhere, the ISP is huge (a few orders of magnitude smaller than antimatter, but well, antimatter doesn't exist everywhere), and it's far from the hardest thing to build for a ship like that.
Anyway, there is still space to cut orders of magnitude on the cost-to-orbit. But you are correct in that none of that will solve any of our current problems.
Fusion. If nobody made it obvious until now, well, fusion is the ultimate interstellar power source. Fuel is everywhere, the ISP is huge (a few orders of magnitude smaller than antimatter, but well, antimatter doesn't exist everywhere), and it's far from the hardest thing to build for a ship like that.
Anyway, there is still space to cut orders of magnitude on the cost-to-orbit. But you are correct in that none of that will solve any of our current problems.