[ExI] Von Neumann Probes

[Ben Zaiboc]

On 25/01/2026 17:13, spike wrote:
>
> At .01c any collision with a dust particle or any particle consisting of even a few thousand atoms would make the material in the shield irrelevant.  Reasoning: do a calculation or even a reasonable estimate on the energy of collision, compare with the chemical bonding energy of whatever material you want or can plausibly imagine.

Yes, that's the direction I was thinking in.

It looks like any fast interstellar probe would have to be in the >1g range or it wouldn't survive for long.

There will be a trade-off between mass, energy needed to accelerate (and decelerate), and target velocity. Presumably a spreadsheet with a competent person at the driving wheel would be able to zero in on an ideal range of those factors that gives us a size and speed that would work for a von Neumann probe.

-- 
Ben