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What indicates that Interstellar travel requires a technological level that includes arbitrary transmutation? It seems to me travelling these distances is much

What indicates that Interstellar travel requires a technological level that includes arbitrary transmutation? It seems to me travelling these distances is much simpler, it basically just requires current technology plus organisations that can hold together for more than a century or so. If you take the only known civilisation as an example: Ever since the invention of atomic bombs we have the propulsion part of what's required to go to ~40% the speed of light (or ~20% and then break). The most difficult challenge yet to overcome would probably be the front shield (at relativistic speeds, space dust can really mess things up), but that seems far from unsolvable. The main thing missing is political will to take the required risks. We were well on a path to such a machine in the 60ies, what failed was mainly politics in the two organisations large and advanced enough to do it (USGov/UdSSR).

lisper 8y ago
> What indicates that Interstellar travel requires a technological level that includes arbitrary transmutation? It seems likely to me that mastering fusion will be a pre-requisite for interstellar travel. But you're right, that's probably the weakest part of my argument. So maybe there will be a market for rare shipping rare elements across interstellar distances.
- m_mueller 8y ago
  That seems likely - my guess is you'll need sufficiently efficient energy to power electromagnetic shielding. Although an old Submarine-style nuclear fission reactor might be just fine for that as well, and you won't have to worry about just venting spent fuel rods into vacuum (in a nuclear pulse type spaceship that bit of radiation is going to be the least of your worries...).