How would I calculate how close a ship can approach the sun?

[CricK0es]

Homework Statement

It's not a piece of homework, I'm doing a project and I've been wondering how I may be able to show it mathematically. I've covered the material before but it was a long long time ago...

Homework Equations

The Attempt at a Solution

[/B]
A-Thinking about modelling my "ship" as a spherical ball of radius, 1m.
B- Use Stefan-Boltzmann Law to determine how much energy is radiated, under the assumption it's a blackbody, at its maximum temperature.
C- Then assuming the radiated energy is equal to the incoming energy from the sun.
D- Calculating the distance required for these two values to be equal.

I feel like it's fairly hand wavey but it doesn't have to be particularly accurate, just a ball park figure. But for D, is it sufficient to use the inverse square law for intensity, or would I have to be more rigorous. As in, treating every point on the surface of the sun as a point source and integrating... Probably too complicated for what I'm looking for.

Anywho. Any help would be appreciated and thank you in advance.

 

[fresh_42]

I guess this will be basically a matter of shielding and what has to be shielded: life or just electronics? If it is life, then even leaving the van Allen belt couldn't be said safe. The preferred material for such a shielding is water, so I would look for absorption rates of water, and don't forget all kind of particles and radiation.

 

[CricK0es]

I guess this will be basically a matter of shielding and what has to be shielded: life or just electronics? If it is life, then even leaving the van Allen belt couldn't be said safe. The preferred material for such a shielding is water, so I would look for absorption rates of water, and don't forget all kind of particles and radiation.

I'm just considering the pure structure of the ship as opposed to having any lifeforms aboard and for the time being I'm focusing on IR and Visible wavelengths

 

[gneill]

The Wikipedia article on the Stefan-Boltzmann Law has a section titled Effective Temperature of the Earth which you will find informative.

 

[CricK0es]

The Wikipedia article on the Stefan-Boltzmann Law has a section titled Effective Temperature of the Earth which you will find informative.

Ahhh that's absolutely perfect. Thank you ;)