Interstellar space travel: which designs have the best chances of getting...

[RVM45]

.....No one mentioned the Bussard Ramjet. If I remember correctly, it is capable of accelerating up to about .38C. Oddly enough, it cant go any faster because of "Wind Resistance".(At 38% of lightspeed, even 1 atom of hydrogen per cubic yard starts to add up.)

.....I do have an observation though- many folks seem to think that Einstein's discovery that the speed of light is an unsurpassable limit, dashed many hopes of travelling to the stars.

.....Reality check people. If they came up with a device tomorrow, that let you travel through space AS-IF it was completely Newtonion; accelerating to as many C as you had delta V to- where would you get the delta V? You wouldn't be one step closer to the stars than we are right now.(although undoubtedly such a weird process would certainly contain beaucoup unintended and quite possibly unforseen consequences. One of the side effects might get you to the stars- if one of the others didn't blow up the known universe first...)

.....RVM45

[Steve Jordan]

Originally Posted by RVM45

.....No one mentioned the Bussard Ramjet. If I remember correctly, it is capable of accelerating up to about .38C. Oddly enough, it cant go any faster because of "Wind Resistance".(At 38% of lightspeed, even 1 atom of hydrogen per cubic yard starts to add up.)

It's item "F" of the opening item, fusion engines, e.g., based on Bussard Ramjet. My suggestion was of an embryonic ship using one of 3 propulsive systems, including F.

[RVM45]

.....Don't know how I missed that. Maybe because you confused me by putting it right out in plain sight that way.

.....My bad.

.....RVM45

[Steve Jordan]

Of course, I still hold out hope for "J," "warped space" or other FTL method.

I worked out the details (sshhh) for a transportation system that ably bypasses the limits of the speed of light, and which seems not only theoretically plausible based on the tenets of quantum theory and experimental data I've dug up, but within the realm of practical possibility for a piloted space craft to use... maybe even by end of century! I don't believe this method has been suggested before, though admittedly there's a lot of SF out there that I haven't seen yet. But it's a very elegant system, so I'm looking forward to messing with it.

I plan to apply it in a future novel (not the one I'm on now, which takes place firmly rooted on Earth, but possibly the next story).