hobbsyoyo
Deity
- Joined
- Jul 13, 2012
- Messages
- 26,575
I want to throw together ideas on how you might go about creating a propulsion system capable of propelling a starship to 1% of the speed of light for lulz. The rules:
My goal in this is to create a concept for a realistic system that has general utility for manned operations to explore the solar system. I'm not really interested in accelerating a microchip to the speed of light, for example, or really any other hyper-specific goal.
The high-level take of how I'm going to tackle this:
To start, I have to define the goal, which means verifying that the goals I've set forth are realistic with current technology in the first place. I also need to lay out the assumptions I will use and check that those are realistic as well. This is going to be trickier than it seems because even answering the question 'What does it take to keep 5 people alive for 1 year' is an open-ended question with endless permutations. I have to answer that question before I even start on the engine, because it dictates the amount of payload the ship must carry at a minimum to do nothing else but keep the crew alive.
Because I'm intending to only focus on the stardrive itself, I will only loosely bound the problem such that it is generally representative of a manned space vehicle rather than try and invent specific architectures for the space vehicle.
Anyone is free to contribute and I'm especially grateful for criticism.
Mods please be nice about double posts, I doubt I'll hit more than 1 a day but it's not like this is a heavily trafficked section of CFC and I fully expect to mostly be talking to myself.
Oh and I decided I'm going to call the system the Ventura Stardrive.
- It has to be achievable with current technology (not even near-future will suffice)
- The starship that the propulsion system propels must be capable of safely carrying 5 humans in space for at least 1 year
- The starship has to accelerate to 1% of the speed of light within 6 months
- I am not examining supporting technologies beyond cursory assumptions
My goal in this is to create a concept for a realistic system that has general utility for manned operations to explore the solar system. I'm not really interested in accelerating a microchip to the speed of light, for example, or really any other hyper-specific goal.
The high-level take of how I'm going to tackle this:
- Define the problem/outline assumptions
- Create back-of-the-envelope boundaries to the solution
- Identify potential solutions and trade them against each other
- Perform detailed technical analysis of winning trades
- Detailed design
To start, I have to define the goal, which means verifying that the goals I've set forth are realistic with current technology in the first place. I also need to lay out the assumptions I will use and check that those are realistic as well. This is going to be trickier than it seems because even answering the question 'What does it take to keep 5 people alive for 1 year' is an open-ended question with endless permutations. I have to answer that question before I even start on the engine, because it dictates the amount of payload the ship must carry at a minimum to do nothing else but keep the crew alive.
Because I'm intending to only focus on the stardrive itself, I will only loosely bound the problem such that it is generally representative of a manned space vehicle rather than try and invent specific architectures for the space vehicle.
Anyone is free to contribute and I'm especially grateful for criticism.
Mods please be nice about double posts, I doubt I'll hit more than 1 a day but it's not like this is a heavily trafficked section of CFC and I fully expect to mostly be talking to myself.
Oh and I decided I'm going to call the system the Ventura Stardrive.
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