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Interstellar Gravitational Assist

• lutusp 14y ago
  > Two neutron stars, each with a diameter of 20 kilometers and a mass of one solar mass — and a combined orbital period of 0.005 seconds — would provide a departure velocity of 0.27 c, which works out to 81,000 kilometers per second. Yes, but the tidal forces would rip the spacecraft apart instead of giving it a uniformly different velocity. I hate to rain on your parade, but those future engineers would still live in the reality that the spacecraft would be constructed from real materials, materials subject to real differential forces. Not to mention the astronauts, who would be turned into organic mush during the departure.