Hazards of speed of light travel.

I’m wondering if near speed of light travel is even possible considering a few practical things.

- I’m assuming that at near speed of light even one grain of sand, or anything of that size, hitting the hull would destroy the ship. The kinetic force would be huge. As far as I know even space is not a perfect vacuum.

- The sensors and navigational systems would need to operate at an incredible range to be of any use. Just plotting to go from A to B and hoping nothing will travel in between your path is not going to cut it.

Your thoughts...?

a reply to: CyberBuddha
THEREFORE, therefore??? Finish the post. Therefore near faster than light travel might be theoretically possible, but practical, NO.
Now bending of space travel, there you might be on to something.

a reply to: CyberBuddha

No need to travel that fast, we just need to figure out the Wormhole Gateway System.

It's amazing how wormholes are rarely discussed. I believe they are Stargates.

The Constellations helped us on earth, maybe there are other roadsigns out there that can be used to travel in the Universe.

a reply to: EdisonintheFM

The biggest hurdle in space travel is inertial dampening.

No propulsion system will be effective without it.

a reply to: CyberBuddha

To travel at or faster then the speed of light you would need to warp space so you'd essentially be in a bubble of space ,I guess as long as you miss Stars , Planets and Moons you would be OK.

Physicists already think that know how to do it the problem is power ... or lack of it.

a reply to: CyberBuddha

Particulate matter springs to mind.

originally posted by: CyberBuddha
I’m wondering if near speed of light travel is even possible considering a few practical things.

Not with chemical rockets. I think one calculation for Project Orion nuclear propulsion said 10% the speed of light was achievable.

- I’m assuming that at near speed of light even one grain of sand, or anything of that size, hitting the hull would destroy the ship. The kinetic force would be huge. As far as I know even space is not a perfect vacuum.

- The sensors and navigational systems would need to operate at an incredible range to be of any use. Just plotting to go from A to B and hoping nothing will travel in between your path is not going to cut it.

Your thoughts...?

Even without any sand grains, the vacuum has hydrogen atoms. Scientists wrote a paper saying the speed limit caused by those is about half the speed of light. Faster than that and the radiation from the hydrogen atoms becomes excessive.

Super-Fast Space Travel Would Kill You in Minutes

Speed kills: Highly relativistic spaceflight would be fatal for passengers and instruments

Highly relativistic speeds are desirable for interstellar travel. Relativistic time dilation would reduce the subjective duration of the trip for the travelers, so that they can cover galaxy-scale distances in a reasonable amount of personal time. Unfortunately, as spaceship velocities approach the speed of light, interstellar hydrogen H, although only present at a density of approximately 1.8 atoms/cm3, turns into intense radiation that would quickly kill passengers and destroy electronic instrumentation. In addition, the energy loss of ionizing radiation passing through the ship’s hull represents an increasing heat load that necessitates large expenditures of energy to cool the ship. Stopping or diverting this flux, either with material or electromagnetic shields, is a daunting problem. Going slow to avoid severe H irradiation sets an upper speed limit of v ~ 0.5 c. This velocity only gives a time dilation factor of about 15%, which would not substantially assist galaxy-scale voyages. Diffuse interstellar H atoms are the ultimate cosmic space mines and represent a formidable obstacle to interstellar travel.

a reply to: Wide-Eyes

I thought gravitational wave riding was going to be the answer for that. I don't know. Maybe Roddenberry was right, there'll have to be docking stations throughout space.

I wish they'd hurry up and perfect artificial gravity on a space hotel of sorts for about a hundred people.

a reply to: Wide-Eyes

I suppose that's the point. We don't have the tech to make wormholes yet, so it's hard to speculate the consequences. Wormholes make the most sense for the physics we understand so far. I believe it's possible. I could very well be wrong, of course.

a reply to: CyberBuddha

You are made of ordinary matter. If you somehow got to the speed of light, you would have to stay there forever.

The energy released on deceleration would flash you across the sky like a star.

Ive always fantasized about galactic space travel, read up everything when I was younger, I’m starting to think that our galaxy/universe is designed to make survivable space travel impossible.

originally posted by: 38181
Ive always fantasized about galactic space travel, read up everything when I was younger, I’m starting to think that our galaxy/universe is designed to make survivable space travel impossible.

Never say never!

Well, I guess in this case you said impossible.... According to the door in alice in wonderland, nothing is impossible! Only impassible, which would make passing it impossible... Whatever, cartoons don't make sense, but all progress is based on the irrational mind.

a reply to: CyberBuddha

Plus the whole pesky thing of your ship would be have infinite mass and need an infinite amount of energy

originally posted by: Wide-Eyes
a reply to: EdisonintheFM

The biggest hurdle in space travel is inertial dampening.

No propulsion system will be effective without it.

Inertia. Change course at relativist speeds will turn you into jam.

Dan Simmons and Catholics in space springs to mind!

originally posted by: 38181
Ive always fantasized about galactic space travel, read up everything when I was younger, I’m starting to think that our galaxy/universe is designed to make survivable space travel impossible.

Folks used to say that about crossing the Atlantic. First impossible, you'd fall off the edge of the planet. Then highly dangerous with multiple crew/passenger deaths per journey. Now something we do commonly in a matter of hours.

IMO had we kept the pedal to the metal after Apollo and didn't tumble into semi-reusable space trucking, we would have been on Mars before 1990. Today we'd likely still be in the solar system working on 0.15C travel speed, but we'd be far more advanced than we are today.

originally posted by: CyberBuddha
I’m wondering if near speed of light travel is even possible considering a few practical things.

- I’m assuming that at near speed of light even one grain of sand, or anything of that size, hitting the hull would destroy the ship. The kinetic force would be huge. As far as I know even space is not a perfect vacuum.

- The sensors and navigational systems would need to operate at an incredible range to be of any use. Just plotting to go from A to B and hoping nothing will travel in between your path is not going to cut it.

Your thoughts...?

Then of course we had the father of Space Opera EE Doc Smith (no not that one!) with his inertialess space drive.

I remember reading once that one of the reasons The Philadelphia Experiment went so wrong was because you have to have an exact location to re-materialize or the objects can meld together, lol, does that make sense?

originally posted by: gortex
a reply to: CyberBuddha

To travel at or faster then the speed of light you would need to warp space so you'd essentially be in a bubble of space ,I guess as long as you miss Stars , Planets and Moons you would be OK.

Physicists already think that know how to do it the problem is power ... or lack of it.

E=MC^2
Infinite energy cannot be obtained .
And infinite mass cannot be tolerated .

a reply to: Gothmog

Do you think if one were to achieve space warping, the planets and other celestrial bodies in the way would just be f'd up beyond any reason? Lol. Never thought about that..

originally posted by: gb540

originally posted by: 38181
Ive always fantasized about galactic space travel, read up everything when I was younger, I’m starting to think that our galaxy/universe is designed to make survivable space travel impossible.

Folks used to say that about crossing the Atlantic. First impossible, you'd fall off the edge of the planet. Then highly dangerous with multiple crew/passenger deaths per journey. Now something we do commonly in a matter of hours.

IMO had we kept the pedal to the metal after Apollo and didn't tumble into semi-reusable space trucking, we would have been on Mars before 1990. Today we'd likely still be in the solar system working on 0.15C travel speed, but we'd be far more advanced than we are today.

True on all points! Back then people had drive, look at how the settlers of the Oregon trail did it, grueling.

Space is a bit different, can’t pull over to grab a bite to eat, shoot a rabbit.

That’s why I didn’t include solar system. The government kinda fudged that up in the 70’s. No drive or will.