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> the vast distances to other habitable planets would mean tens of thousands of years of travel even with the most efficient technology. Spoken like someone wh
by davedx 8mo ago
> the vast distances to other habitable planets would mean tens of thousands of years of travel even with the most efficient technology.
Spoken like someone who's never read Tau Zero
- 0xf00ff00f 8mo agoStephen Baxter's short story "Pilot" is another good one: https://www.stephen-baxter.com/stories.html#pilot https://www.stephen-baxter.com/stories.html#pilot
- antonvs 8mo agoSpoken like someone who’s never read the Relativistic Rocket: https://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/Relativity/SR/Rocket/rocket.html https://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/Relativity/SR/Rocket/... I really find it hard to understand how people confuse science fiction with reality. I love Tau Zero - I first read it over 40 years ago - but it’s fiction, ffs.
- PaulHoule 8mo agoAlso they have trouble stopping in Tau Zero so they have no choice going further than they planned. It's one of the best sci-fi novels of all time, read it!. That Bussard Ramjet, though, is thoroughly discredited. It can't possibly work. Hydrogen hydrogen fusion is a terribly slow nuclear reaction and if you had to stop the gas to give it enough time to react, you'd end up stopping the rocket not accelerating it. In fact, the most credible use of that kind of magnetic scoop is as a brake!
- coldtea 8mo agoNothing about Tau Zero refutes what the parent wrote. It reinforces it. Plus, even Tau Zero's initial premise is a pipe dream.
- klez 8mo ago> even Tau Zero's initial premise is a pipe dream You mean Sweden as a world superpower? :P
- davedx 8mo agoHave you read the book? They travel across the known universe in less than the span of a human lifetime. OP said "tens of thousands of years of travel". Or are you being deliberately obtuse about relativistic time dilation?