4 ms·
> Accelerating a rock to relativistic speeds is pretty easy Huh? How? I haven't seen any proposal that doesn't start with the assumption that we can inject a r
by gilbetron 5y ago
> Accelerating a rock to relativistic speeds is pretty easy
Huh? How? I haven't seen any proposal that doesn't start with the assumption that we can inject a rock with a preposterous amount of energy let alone hit (in astronomical scales) a ridiculously small target, not to mention navigate all the gravity wells in between.
- a1369209993 5y agoMultistage rocket using ion engines. Remember this is over interstellar distances (>4 lightyears), so you have multiple years, if not decades or centuries to accellerate. This does get back to the "Why didn't we RKKV it millions of years before intellegent life even existed, much less had a opportunity to hide, based on biosignatures in the atmosphere?", though.
- gilbetron 5y agoOk, that gets us to maybe 0.3% of the speed of light on something small, which isn't very interesting. https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/22140/what-is-the-maximum-speed-an-ion-engine-can-propel-a-spacecraft-at https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/22140/what-is-the-...