s28400
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Hey guys, I was recently thinking about theoretical ways to accelerate objects ( spacecraft ) and I had the idea that seems feasible and could potentially reach the speed of light in a reasonable time period.
In order for this to work, we would need to develop an artificial gravity generator that could produce gravity in one constant direction. If we had that on the front of a ship, no matter the weight, the acceleration would be constant. So let's say that the gravitational acceleration from the generator was tuned at Earth's 9.81m/s^2. I figured that a ship with that constant force would reach the speed of light in just under a year. Now, let's say we tuned up the generator to 5 times the normal gravity here on earth. It is still well within the survivable limits of humans and it would cut the time to the speed of light from just under a year to just over 2 months, (~71 days).
The main problem with accelerating to or near the speed of light, is that your mass gets infinitely larger. With conventional acceleration methods such as rockets or other expulsion based engines you would need an equally infinite amount of particles being accelerated out the nozzle to continue accelerating. This equates to an infinite amount of energy and thus is impossible. However, unless the gravity generator requires more power to effect more mass, the weight of the ship would be irrelevant to the acceleration.
Anyway, I am no expert on this material but it seems like this would work if we had an artificial gravity generator. I know this seems somewhat far fetched, but let me know what you guys think!
In order for this to work, we would need to develop an artificial gravity generator that could produce gravity in one constant direction. If we had that on the front of a ship, no matter the weight, the acceleration would be constant. So let's say that the gravitational acceleration from the generator was tuned at Earth's 9.81m/s^2. I figured that a ship with that constant force would reach the speed of light in just under a year. Now, let's say we tuned up the generator to 5 times the normal gravity here on earth. It is still well within the survivable limits of humans and it would cut the time to the speed of light from just under a year to just over 2 months, (~71 days).
The main problem with accelerating to or near the speed of light, is that your mass gets infinitely larger. With conventional acceleration methods such as rockets or other expulsion based engines you would need an equally infinite amount of particles being accelerated out the nozzle to continue accelerating. This equates to an infinite amount of energy and thus is impossible. However, unless the gravity generator requires more power to effect more mass, the weight of the ship would be irrelevant to the acceleration.
Anyway, I am no expert on this material but it seems like this would work if we had an artificial gravity generator. I know this seems somewhat far fetched, but let me know what you guys think!