3 ms·
Are you familiar with The Expanse? Based on the way G-forces are presented in the TV adaptation (I presume the book does something similar), I take it the Epste
by mortenjorck 8y ago
Are you familiar with The Expanse? Based on the way G-forces are presented in the TV adaptation (I presume the book does something similar), I take it the Epstein Drive is supposed to be a constant-acceleration design, which in the story is limited to intra-solar travel (though presumably the generation ship Nauvoo was designed to use it for interstellar).
I mention this because your comment made me think: Even staying within the solar system, how short would a trip between Earth and Mars have to be to start to pose relativistic problems? I wonder at what point frequent travelers would start aging noticeably more slowly. (If this is dealt with in the books, now I’ll really have to read them.)
- wyattpeak 8y agoAt relativistic speeds, Mars and Earth are ludicrously close - between 4 and 20 minutes apart at light speed. So even travelling arbitrarily close to the speed of light, at the greatest possible distance, you could only gain 20 minutes on the folks back home per trip. A round trip weekly at average distance (just going with 12mins/trip because the details get complicated), 48 weeks a year for 40 years would leave you just over a month younger than those who stay put.