30 Jun 02:07
--Total conversion rocket? Like the Torchship!
Shout Box archive
30 Jun 02:06
--People have worked out the maths... and stuff, and capturing even a little bit of the sun's power could drive hundreds of ships to the stars.
30 Jun 02:05
--It also takes a huge amount of energy to move things at near relatavistic speeds
30 Jun 02:05
--Oh, definitely. That is the fly in the ointment. Also, you need insane amounts of power for good thrust.
30 Jun 02:05
--Easier said than done to efficiently convert the energy from photons into propulsion I think, but I know nothing about the theory
30 Jun 02:03
--A chemical rocket would require a literally astronomical amount of fuel to reach a high enough speed for interstellar travel.
30 Jun 02:03
--His concept was literally a light-rocket, which converted matter to energy and exhausted said energy as massless radiation. It works better for reaching high speeds because... maths, and stuff. LOL
30 Jun 02:02
--Robert Forward came up with the staged sail, but people had already talked about them earlier.
30 Jun 02:00
--People don't talk much about photon rockets these days, they probably aren't practical. But the implications of these kinds of voyages are mind-blowing.
30 Jun 01:59
--So he suggested using a rocket propelled by the fasted thing the universe– light
30 Jun 01:59
--And he also pointed out the limit factor of a rocket is its exhaust velocity
30 Jun 01:59
--Eugene Sanger pointed out that Relativity is not an obstacle to reaching any point in the known universe, because of time dilation