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Re: starship-design: Re: FTL travel
Ben Franchuk writes:
> Finding the equation just recently Power (in watts) = ISP ( impulse )
> * 9.8 ( g ) * N ( newtons of thrust ) / 2. Any propulsion system
> would require MAMMOTH amounts of power. Heat dissipation is the limiting
> factor here.
As has been pointed out before, fuel is the real limiting factor.
Fusion power is barely capable of driving a ship to relativistic speeds
with large, but not completely untenable, fuel-to-payload ratios.
Talking about building an interstellar spacecraft that uses fission
power is just plain ludicrous. There isn't enough fissible material in
the solar system to power a spacecraft at 1 g acceleration for a whole
year.