Interstellar Hydrogen Prevents Light-Speed Travel? 546
garg0yle writes "As if relativity wasn't enough to prevent us traveling at light speed, Professor William Edelstein of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine is now claiming that the interstellar hydrogen, compressed in front of the ship, would bring the journey to a shocking end. 'As the spaceship reached 99.999998 per cent of the speed of light, "hydrogen atoms would seem to reach a staggering 7 teraelectron volts," which for the crew "would be like standing in front of the Large Hadron Collider beam."'"
Fuckin' Noobs (Score:5, Funny)
Damn it, now they tell me (Score:5, Funny)
And I was just about to get into my 99.999998% lightspeed spaceship.
so if I stand in front of the beam... (Score:1, Funny)
I go back into the past ?
Let's just hope... (Score:4, Funny)
Let's just hope the engine controls aren't made by Toyota, or it'll be hitting that speed whether the crew want or not.
simple solution: (Score:5, Funny)
put a hydrogen-atom-splitter on the bow of the ship, they'll just get cut in half and fall out of the way.
LHC (Score:4, Funny)
"hydrogen atoms would seem to reach a staggering 7 teraelectron volts," which for the crew "would be like standing in front of the Large Hadron Collider beam."
Wow, free energy!
Oh noes (Score:4, Funny)
It's not about a velocity of light speed (Score:2, Funny)
Spacetime is curved, so even if the ship is traveling at 15mph, it reaches its destination in a time indicating FTL travel. The actual distance traveled is much shorter, though.
This is the stuff you should already know before you apply to Starfleet.
Re:Do keep up, dear boy... (Score:0, Funny)
[*] And because this is /., I expect you all to forgive me for using the present tense here [grin]
Possibly. But it doesn't give you a free pass on spelling 'two' as 'tow' and not pluralizing thoughts in your opening sentence!
MEIN FUHRER! I CAN EDIT!
easy solution (Score:5, Funny)
7 teraelectron volts? (Score:4, Funny)
I'll bet that would sting.
Re:Do keep up, dear boy... (Score:5, Funny)
You did not just link me to a astrophysics article of wiki that's worse than tv tropes for me
I'm at 8 articles from just the first link you provided.
Re:simple solution: (Score:5, Funny)
You joke, but that might be an actual solution. If you can go that fast, why not postulate some other technology. Something that causes hydrogen to have a 50% probability of being on the left, 50% on the right. Just for a microsecond. Let it collapse back to the middle once you've gone past.
Really you'd want to create some sort of probability donut. Fly right through the middle. I propose calling it the Homer-Schrodinger shield.
Physician, not physicist (Score:3, Funny)
What does this guy know about space travel? He's a prof at a medical school, FFS. This is rocket science, not brain surgery!
Re:simple solution: (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Considering the energy required. . . (Score:3, Funny)
Well to you it might be only 2 minutes, but at the destination you will be 5.67 days late and will probably miss your connecting flight.
Re:True, But Irrelevant... (Score:5, Funny)
Not bloody likely.
Likely bloody. Very bloody.
Perspective (Score:4, Funny)
Do not try to dodge the atoms - that's impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth: there are no atoms.
Re:old news... (Score:5, Funny)
Thereby increasing, almost infinitely, the improbability of any FTL technology - thusly ensuring success for a system that harnesses improbability as a motive power.
Re:Do keep up, dear boy... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:old news... (Score:5, Funny)
...
Since most of the time the LHC is down that doesn't seem like a big problem :-p
Ok, big fan of the LHC, but just had to say it
Re:Damn it, now they tell me (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Do keep up, dear boy... (Score:3, Funny)
(Yes, I know spelled can be spelled "spelt", but it makes me cringe seeing it that way.)
Your country of origin colours your perception of spelling.
TSA (Score:3, Funny)
The real reason interstellar travel will never happen is the time in the security line with TSA would approach infinity for that sort of trip.
Re:The point of the Fermi paradox... (Score:3, Funny)
It was meant to be funny...
Re:old news... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Damn it, now they tell me (Score:4, Funny)
Apples and oranges. Speed != acceleration.
I simply omitted the "in 3.5 hours" which were in the previous sentence. I presumed my readers would be sentient.