6 ms·

I think the idea is that it doesn't ever touch your ship--you just funnel it into your reactor directly. (You have to ionize it somehow...) So it's not equivale

by wging 14y ago

I think the idea is that it doesn't ever touch your ship--you just funnel it into your reactor directly. (You have to ionize it somehow...) So it's not equivalent to shielding--it's designed to avoid shielding.

gliese1337 14y ago
> So it's not equivalent to shielding--it's designed to avoid shielding. Not quite. Electromagnetic shielding is a potentially viable thing, and can be much less massive than material shielding; a Bussard Ramjet doesn't avoid shielding so much as repurposes the electromagnetic shielding you already needed anyway. Ionizing is not that big of a problem. If you're going fast enough, hydrogen atoms will be ionized by the interaction with your electromagnetic field. If you're not going fast enough, you can shine a maser ahead of you to ionize things in your path (which cuts in to the efficiency of the ramjet).