[LukeL]

Also think what even a 1 gram rock would do to the hull of a ship when traveling at 0.10c. Even if you could detect the object the inertia of the ship would rip it apart during any evasive maneuver

[dsrtsage]

Occasional Cortex wont like it because it will cause global [insert latest fad]

[jmacusa]

Yup.Something the size of a grain of rice would be devastating.

[j. earl carter]

Also think what even a 1 gram rock would do to the hull...

This is exactly the reason it ain't gonna happen anytime soon. Commercial air travel is now so safe that we have gotten to the point where a crash in Ethopia is big news in the USA. There are no passenger planes crashing in the US, it is an extremely rare occurrence.

Sub-orbital rocket travel will only be popular until people start to die. All of the self-driving car news went away as soon as a couple of people died. Self-driving cars are coming eventually, but not yet.

[DJ Frisat]

"Also think what even a 1 gram rock would do to the hull of a ship when traveling at 0.10c. Even if you could detect the object the inertia of the ship would rip it apart during any evasive maneuver."

Thank you!

Things like this are what make my head hurt when anybody starts talking about light-speed travel. Sure, open space is 'vast', but it's not completely empty. It seems like there'd be plenty of opportunity to run into something.

You're not exactly looking out the windscreen, steering clear of obstacles at that speed...