The ship would need some way to stay to cool. Harry On Wed., Oct. 7, 2020, 9:58 p.m. Robin, <mixent...@aussiebroadband.com.au> wrote:
> Hi, > > According to wiki (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstellar_medium) the > density of matter in between stars in the > galaxy is about 1E6 molecules / cm^3. We make the assumption that all of > it is molecular Hydrogen. > > A space ship traveling at half the speed of light would encounter these > molecules traveling in the opposite direction at > that velocity. Assuming that the kinetic energy of these particles is > calculated using 1/2 m*v^2 (it's actually more at > that speed), then the power associated with the impact on the hull of the > ship is about 1/2 MW /cm^2. > If we further assume that the hull is made of 1/2 cm thick Titanium, then > it will reach it's melting point after an > exposure of 4 milliseconds. > > It's going to be very short trip. ;) > >
