Some Obstacles to Space Travel
May 29, 2019 17:11:13 GMT -5
Post by Radrook Admin on May 29, 2019 17:11:13 GMT -5
Some Obstacles to Space Travel
Isn’t it wonderful to watch those sci fi films where spaceships zoom across the universe and those inside appear totally unaffected by it? Unfortunately, traveling in space isn’t as easy as they make it appear. Sadly, the truth is far more sobering.
1.Space debris
When we travel on the interstate highway, we count on established rules such as restricted lanes requiring that vehicles travel in one direction. So we confidently step on the accelerator with the assurance that no other vehicle will be traveling towards us straight ahead or from the sides.
However, in space there are no such rules. Neither is there any area that has been previously secured from obstacles such as lanes or roads. In short, anything from anywhere can suddenly appear seemingly out of nowhere and take you and your ship out.
It could be a shower of small pebbles, or it could be meteoroids, or it could be a large asteroid. It might even be an especially thick cloud of dust that suddenly intercepts you and and blasts your hull. The faster we travel, the less time we have to react to any of such threats. So if we do get to our destination, sheer luck has much to do with it.
2. Limited Maneuverability
Then there is the maneuverability problem. The faster we travel, the less maneuverable the ship becomes because of the effect on those inside. Turning on a road at 50 mph isn’t the same as attempting to suddenly turn at 36-thousand miles per hour. The pressures caused by the momentum would press or hurl us in the opposite direction with such force that we would be killed.
That's why the star Star Trek writers, who have the Enterprise twisting and turning with the crew totally unaffected, introduced what they glibly refer to as Inertial Dampeners which nullify the effects of inertia. But we currently don’t have those mysterious, and largely unexplained, inertial dampeners, and very possibly never will. So trying to evade an oncoming object by suddenly swerving aside at those velocities becomes impractical.
3. Speed Limit
True, on the highway there are speed limits which governments require in order to ensure safety. But there are also limits that nature imposes as well. For example, on Earth, the faster we go the more friction the atmosphere inflicts on an object’s surface. In fact, the friction can be so great, that the object entering our atmosphere begins to crumble before it hits the Earth. That’s why the Space Shuttle is fitted with heat shields for reentry.
However, space is mostly a vacuum, so as long as we evade the dust and thick hydrogen clouds and travel within a vacuum, we are OK-right? Well, only up to a certain point. You see, although Hydrogen atoms are present in a vacuum in extremely low numbers, and are inconsequential to a ship travelling below 93,000 miles per second, which is half the speed of light, once we exceed that speed then the greater frequency of hydrogen atom impact on the ship’s hull will begin to heat it so that great expenditures in energy would be needed to keep it cool. Also, the radiation intensity would kill those inside. So until we can provide such a ship with adequate hull protection, travel velocity will be restricted to below that speed.
gizmodo.com/faster-than-light-travel-may-be-possible-5951184