5 ms·

> "the craft could accelerate to one-fifth the speed of light" At that speed, wouldn't this little device be ripped to shreds by dust, radiation, and loose ato

• davedx 10y ago
  Not sure if space has that much stuff in it outside the heliosphere... Some numbers here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstellar_medium https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstellar_medium
  • incompatible 10y ago
    It will still be travelling at that speed when entering the corresponding area of the target system. If it could survive, it would be interesting to know what kind of observations could be made by a single-chip sensor travelling at that speed. No planetary close-ups surely.
    • davedx 9y ago
      Good point. And yeah I wonder how accurate its trajectory would be after travelling multiple light years. Cool engineering problems!
    • davedx 9y ago
      This is a fascinating read: https://arxiv.org/pdf/physics/0610030.pdf https://arxiv.org/pdf/physics/0610030.pdf
• Frenchgeek 10y ago
  Well, as long as you don't care about stopping any time soon, it still can accelerate a ship to one-fifth the speed of light...
• deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
• throwaway91111 10y ago
  Yes. It also needs a kinetic shield.