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Interstellar Hydrogen Prevents Light-Speed Travel?
garg0yle writes "As if relativity wasn't enough to prevent us traveling at light speed, Professor William Edelstein of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine is now claiming that the interstellar hydrogen, compressed in front of the ship, would bring the journey to a shocking end. 'As the spaceship reached 99.999998 per cent of the speed of light, "hydrogen atoms would seem to reach a staggering 7 teraelectron volts," which for the crew "would be like standing in front of the Large Hadron Collider beam."'"
That's what the deflector array is for.
Don't take life so seriously. No one makes it out alive.
And I was just about to get into my 99.999998% lightspeed spaceship.
I go back into the past ?
Let's just hope the engine controls aren't made by Toyota, or it'll be hitting that speed whether the crew want or not.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
put a hydrogen-atom-splitter on the bow of the ship, they'll just get cut in half and fall out of the way.
"hydrogen atoms would seem to reach a staggering 7 teraelectron volts," which for the crew "would be like standing in front of the Large Hadron Collider beam."
Wow, free energy!
Free Martian Whores!
Guess we'll just have to go at 99.999997% of the speed of light then.
Spacetime is curved, so even if the ship is traveling at 15mph, it reaches its destination in a time indicating FTL travel. The actual distance traveled is much shorter, though.
This is the stuff you should already know before you apply to Starfleet.
[*] And because this is /., I expect you all to forgive me for using the present tense here [grin]
Possibly. But it doesn't give you a free pass on spelling 'two' as 'tow' and not pluralizing thoughts in your opening sentence!
MEIN FUHRER! I CAN EDIT!
All you have to do is navigate around the hydrogen atoms.
I'll bet that would sting.
"The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
You did not just link me to a astrophysics article of wiki that's worse than tv tropes for me
I'm at 8 articles from just the first link you provided.
What does this guy know about space travel? He's a prof at a medical school, FFS. This is rocket science, not brain surgery!
Well to you it might be only 2 minutes, but at the destination you will be 5.67 days late and will probably miss your connecting flight.
Not bloody likely.
Likely bloody. Very bloody.
This post contains no rudeness or derision of any kind. All arguments are friendly. Terms and exclusions may apply.
Do not try to dodge the atoms - that's impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth: there are no atoms.
Thereby increasing, almost infinitely, the improbability of any FTL technology - thusly ensuring success for a system that harnesses improbability as a motive power.
"Speaking the Truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell
We could just build the spaceships out of inside-out LHC tunnels!
I am the richest astronaut ever to win the superbowl.
...
Since most of the time the LHC is down that doesn't seem like a big problem :-p
Ok, big fan of the LHC, but just had to say it
(Yes, I know spelled can be spelled "spelt", but it makes me cringe seeing it that way.)
Your country of origin colours your perception of spelling.
"Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."
The real reason interstellar travel will never happen is the time in the security line with TSA would approach infinity for that sort of trip.
It was meant to be funny...
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
As an added benefit, the polarity of such a deflector could be reversed to solve all sorts of problems that might crop up.
Michael Reed, freelance tech writer.