While the trip would seem instantaneous, assuming the travelers were still alive to experience it, from a viewpoint outside of the ship, it would still take a long time, and all the radiation striking the leading end of the craft would seem to the occupants to hit them all at once. All the radiation in the line of direction is blue shifted, and the scene ahead would look distorted, squashed toward the point ahead and stretched out behind.
The blue shifting means the the radiation is experienced at a higher frequency so radio waves, light becomes gamma rays and x-rays and even super-high energy cosmic rays hitting the occupants. No practical amount of shielding could protect them. The link to the following video shows some of the optical effects of travelling near the speed of light. http://www.metacafe.com/watch/5733303/traveling_at_the_speed_of_light_optical_effects/ http://www.metacafe.com/watch/5733303/traveling_at_the_speed_of_light_optical_effects/ ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <jr_esq@...> wrote: Xeno, If humans could ever build a spaceship that could travel at the speed of light, I would assume that they would have the solution to the radiation problem. IMO, the radiation problem may not be unsurmountable. For example, a trip to the nearest star one light year away would be instantaneous to the traveler. So, the radiation exposure would be negligible. Given this paradox, the traveler would probably not have to carry any food for sustenance to get to its destination at light speed. Also, the current understanding in physics is that the speed of light is the top speed that anything in the universe can travel. If you traveled greater than the speed of light, then time would go backwards. Since this would be illogical and not found in nature, most scientists believe that the speed of light cannot be exceeded.
