@shawns0762

9 months ago

If a ship travels at a constant 1 g acceleration rate it would get to Alpha Centauri in about 3.6 years (7.3 years would pass on Earth) and this includes turning the ship around halfway to decelerate. It would achieve about 95% light speed in 1 year. A 10 ton ship would require a mere 10 tons of continuous thrust. This is by far the fastest way we can get to other worlds and the ship would have gravity the whole way.
All that is needed for this is a fission rocket that can put out thrust for long periods and does not consume hydrogen. A true fission rocket should consume uranium or plutonium only. 1 kg of uranium contains the same potential energy as 120,000 tons of coal and plutonium has even more energy. What's needed is a controlled, time released nuclear explosion.
In an atomic bomb fission occurs when neutrons hit uranium or plutonium nuclei. This is because they will not tolerate an increase in mass. Due to the equivalence of mass and energy, the same should be true if you infuse them with energy. This might be as simple as having negatively charged uranium or plutonium atoms coming into contact with positively charged uranium or plutonium atoms.
With the constant acceleration method a ship can span the entire diameter of our galaxy in 24 ship/113,000 Earth years. Systems with stars similar to our sun can be reached in under 10 ship years.

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