/sci/ - Science & Math

>>8432653
>Actually, even with the modern primitive beasts, acceleration is very predictable and easy,

Not if you are accelerating at a rate of 1g for 50 or so years. Anny malfunction could cause a catastrophic failure. Redundancy would be low due to weight restrictions. 95% of the ship's mass will be fuel.


>Plus, depending on how fast you're going, detecting and avoiding collisions with larger objects may be problematic, which you'll need to set aside even more synergistic fuel and mass for. If it's a colony ship, said unexpected turns lead to situations like this:
http://i.4cdn.org/wsg/1477251604345.webm

I am going to need a source on that webm.
Your micrometeorite and small collision shielding would consist of a giant copper plate mounted on shock absorbers at the front of the craft. Anything larger would simply kill your craft and you would be moving far too fast to maneuver. Hence your best bet is to send multiple craft.

>If your species managed to colonize another planet in the first place, you've a culture that thinks both collectively and for long term

You are making a lot of assumptions. I am saying you would be greatly limited in your rate of expansion as it would take a planet spanning civilization to have the economic and manufacturing capacity necessary to even consider building such craft.Establishing such a civilization would take too damn long to use as a pit stop.