- #1
Albertgauss
Gold Member
- 292
- 37
I searched this site and could not find any referances for what a good lightspeed ship would look like. Does anyone know of any good books or references on how to design ships that travel near light speed? Here's a few things I do know people speculate on:
It would be sleek.
Stationary atoms become high energy bullets at such a ship.
Microwave background radiation would cause drag forces.
It would probably be matter/antimatter fuel.
I'm going to pretend the large engine can be compressed into the reasonable size of a spaceship. Possibly, our ship would have vents with which to collect space particles, en route. These particles would serve as particle beams to create matter/antimatter beams, then react the matter/antimatter to produce the required energy.
I don't think it will need wings.
Wings are useful in flying craft for atmospheres, but out in space, I can't see any use for them.
The ship could rip apart under its own acceleration
There could be a time delay between when the forward part of the ship lifts off and the back end of the ship lifts off. So the rigidity of the ship may be compromised. Probably not a problem for slow acceleration though.
Would electromagnetic shields be useful on such a ship for protection against space debri?
Though such a ship is traveling near the speed of light, in its own frame, an electromagnetic shield would still propagate at light speed ahead of the ship.
Steering and Turning
I would envision a single, spherical rudder, that could rotate with a conical degree of freedom. There is nothing for the ship to push off against, except its own matter/antimatter engine.
The color of the hull would be water-ice, an abundant material which we could put over most of our ship to help with the impacts of small atoms and dust grains. Such a layer would need to be replenished throughout the journey.
The ship would need detectors for all frequencies
As the ship goes through space, optical photons in front of the ship would appear as X-ray/Gamma-Ray Photons, while photons behind the ship would shift to radio/infrared frequencies. So you would need high-energy photon detectors in the ship's front, low-energy photon detectors in the ship's rear.
How am I doing? Anything else interesting anyone can speculate on properties of a light speed ship?
It would be sleek.
Stationary atoms become high energy bullets at such a ship.
Microwave background radiation would cause drag forces.
It would probably be matter/antimatter fuel.
I'm going to pretend the large engine can be compressed into the reasonable size of a spaceship. Possibly, our ship would have vents with which to collect space particles, en route. These particles would serve as particle beams to create matter/antimatter beams, then react the matter/antimatter to produce the required energy.
I don't think it will need wings.
Wings are useful in flying craft for atmospheres, but out in space, I can't see any use for them.
The ship could rip apart under its own acceleration
There could be a time delay between when the forward part of the ship lifts off and the back end of the ship lifts off. So the rigidity of the ship may be compromised. Probably not a problem for slow acceleration though.
Would electromagnetic shields be useful on such a ship for protection against space debri?
Though such a ship is traveling near the speed of light, in its own frame, an electromagnetic shield would still propagate at light speed ahead of the ship.
Steering and Turning
I would envision a single, spherical rudder, that could rotate with a conical degree of freedom. There is nothing for the ship to push off against, except its own matter/antimatter engine.
The color of the hull would be water-ice, an abundant material which we could put over most of our ship to help with the impacts of small atoms and dust grains. Such a layer would need to be replenished throughout the journey.
The ship would need detectors for all frequencies
As the ship goes through space, optical photons in front of the ship would appear as X-ray/Gamma-Ray Photons, while photons behind the ship would shift to radio/infrared frequencies. So you would need high-energy photon detectors in the ship's front, low-energy photon detectors in the ship's rear.
How am I doing? Anything else interesting anyone can speculate on properties of a light speed ship?