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starship-design: re: so you want to go faster than light . . .



Regarding the current discussion, I have to agree that Dr. Einstein
seems to suggest that FTL travel, for physical bodies at least, requires
infinite energy. I have before me a copy of his book, "The Meaning of
Relativity" (Fifth edition, MJF Books), and, although I can't follow the
copious math, I did find his most famous equation (on p. 46), shortly
followed by this exact quote: "We see from the last of equations (43)
that E becomes infinite when q approaches 1, the velocity of light." Not
much there to argue about, and it gives Dr. Johnson a
less-than-snowball's chance of breaking c with his fission rocket.

I do continue to maintain an as yet irrationally-held belief that we
will, at some time, conquer the light speed barrier; I just don't know
how (when I find out, I'll quit my day job!). My personal favorite
approach to this would be to concentrate on learning to control gravity,
though I can't explain why I feel that this would be a key. This
approach does have appeal, though, in that I think that it would give
you a free bonus in gaining control of inertia at the same time. I'd be
interested to hear responses to this.

Keep looking up,
Curtis