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To: Celerity

None of this stuff can withstand a particle of dust hitting the sail.


4 posted on 04/30/2016 11:22:30 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; Not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: Secret Agent Man

Or for that matter, a cosmic ray. It’s not going to end up being that small because it’s going to need to generate a powerfull magnetic field or carry a large physical shield to absorb particle collisions.

20% of c is a velocity creating kinetic values approaching what particle accelerators generate.

Also, is anyone considering the ramifications of an object like that entering a planetary atmosphere that happens to have a civilization on it? It probably won’t affect the surface, but any observer is going to know something epic just happened in the atmosphere...


5 posted on 05/01/2016 1:15:17 AM PDT by Axenolith (Government blows, and that which governs least, blows least...)
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To: Secret Agent Man

On that line, a while back was a piece on some propulsive technology to get things moving around the solar system at %s of c. I commented that any type of ship utilizing it is going to have to have like a tenth AU auto destruct mechanism on it because slamming 400 or 500 tons of space craft into earth at 5-10% c is going to be a Kt level event... You’re going to have to have a nuclear device on board every craft that will be enough to turn it to plasma if it crosses that distance boundary on an intercept course!


6 posted on 05/01/2016 1:22:36 AM PDT by Axenolith (Government blows, and that which governs least, blows least...)
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