Re: starship-design: stuff

[Steve VanDevender <stevev@efn.org>]

Paul Anderson writes:
 > Well, IIRC, einstein theorized that to go FASTER than light would require
 > an infinite amount of energy,

No.  As the velocity of an object with mass approaches c, its
energy increases without limit.  There is no physically
consistent interpretation of the physical properties of an object
that moves faster than c.

Before you new subscribers begin rehashing arguments that we're
already deeply tired of, PLEASE read the archives at
ftp://ftp.efn.org/pub/users/stevev/starship-design/.  For those
of you without a precise understanding of relativity theory, I
suggest _Spacetime Physics_, 2nd ed., by Taylor and Wheeler as an
excellent introductory text.

A succinct summary: The purpose of this list is to consider the
_engineering_ design of a craft that can reach Tau Ceti
(approximately 10 lyr away) carrying human explorers, to be
launched in 2050.  Because there is no current physical theory,
let alone engineering knowledge, that would allow for
faster-than-light propulsion, we are not considering designs that
involve any sort of faster-than-light travel.  If you think you
can come up with such a design, first you need a widely accepted
physical theory that would allow faster-than-light travel, such
that the properties of a faster-than-light propulsion system
could be extrapolated with enough detail to make an engineering
design.