[ExI] Request for Information (RFI) 100 Year Starship Study

[Keith Henson]

On Fri, May 6, 2011 at 6:36 AM, spike <spike66 at att.net> wrote:
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org
> [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of Adrian Tymes
> Subject: Re: [ExI] Request for Information (RFI) 100 Year Starship Study
>
> 2011/5/4 Stephen Van Sickle <sjv2006 at gmail.com>:
>>
>> https://www.fbo.gov/download/4e9/4e97f00f960077f97483818426f13673/RFI_
> -_100_Year_Starship_Study.pdf
>
>
>>Interesting little piece of science fiction they're asking for...
>
>
> I can do orbit mechanics and weight estimations, or double check your
> estimates.  Would that help?
>
> The DARPA people sometimes come up with funds for studies, but this is the
> tightest budget time I have ever seen.  Might still be worth a try.

I have thought about this problem and come up with many, many
solutions over the past several decades.

It's a nearly hopeless effort.

The problem is that the technical base keeps changing.

But if anyone really wants to go, the only sensible approach within
current knowledge is to power star ships from the stars.

." . . the Sun releases energy at the mass-energy conversion rate of
4.26 million metric tons per second,"

Light sails using even the smallest part of this would support a lot
of traffic at a substantial fraction of the speed of light.

One problem with this is stopping at the target start and (if you want
to) getting back.

Another problem is finding anyone interested in going.  Those who go
would be cut off from social acceleration.

Keith