Speculation on Interstellar Travel

[quasarrgames]

I was curious about how feasible interstellar travel might be, so i did some quick math. I realised that if a ship was to accelerate at 1g (9.81m/s^2) for a little under 1 year, it would get very close to the speed of light. I guess if you were to factor in time dilation at speeds that close to C, for the final stretch of the acceleration, time would slow down for the ship.

Thus, it seems to me that even if the ship was to accelerate constantly to the edge of the galaxy, and take thousands of years on its voyage, it would only feel like 1 year for the person on board. To get almost anywhere, the said ship could accelerate for 1 year, turn around at exactly halfway, and decelerate for 1 year, and it would be at its destination, with only two years of wear on the spacecraft and its crew. 

I was also thinking about what a person would see if the theoretical ship had a window, and based on my very limited knowledge of relativistics, i'd guess that everything in front of it would be tinged a light blue, and everything behind it a deep red. If the ship was time-dilated enough, stars might even whiz by like in star trek.

This is just my speculation! I'm certainly no rocket scientist! Which is why i'm asking: Is my logic really true? Could an interstellar voyage really only take 2 years in this circumstance? What would a passenger really see on their voyage?

 

Thought it might be fun to talk about

Edited June 5, 2016 by quasarrgames

[Nathair]

10 minutes ago, quasarrgames said:

if a ship was to accelerate at 1g (9.81m/s^2) for a little under 1 year, it would get very close to the speed of light

 

...and require the weight of a small planet in fuel.

[Spaceception]

2 minutes ago, Nathair said:

...and require the weight of a small planet in fuel.

Unless you used Antimatter, or a Bussard ramjet.

Well, about the Ramjet, you would require a lot of fuel, but a few hundred thousand kilos would actually be in the tanks, the rest would be from interstellar space.

Edited June 5, 2016 by Spaceception

[Nathair]

1 minute ago, Spaceception said:

Unless you used Antimatter, or a Bussard ramjet.

Well sure, but by that token we could just borrow Harry Potter's broom for the trip.

[Spaceception]

Just now, Nathair said:

Well sure, but by that token we could just borrow Harry Potter's broom for the trip.

They don't go that fast, apparition would probably work though.

[Nathair]

Just now, Spaceception said:

They don't go that fast

"Fast" isn't an issue in space (until you approach C) but acceleration is. Clearly Harry's Firebolt could do significantly better than the constant 1G in question.

[HebaruSan]

I think you have the general parameters accurate enough for most sci fi stories.

A further wrinkle to bear in mind is that interstellar space isn't an absolute vacuum. Even beyond virtual particle pairs, there are regular particles floating around that you'd have to fly through, and as you go faster and faster, they turn into a constant barrage of high energy impacts all over your ship. One of the advantages of a ramjet is the possibility to divert some of them with the intake field, but I believe that only works for particles with a charge, so you'd need some other strategy for dealing with neutrons.

[Spaceception]

2 minutes ago, Nathair said:

"Fast" isn't an issue in space (until you approach C) but acceleration is. Clearly Harry's Firebolt could do significantly better than the constant 1G in question.

True, but how long would it last until the magic wore off?

After you answer, I think that's enough offtopic posts.

[Nathair]

9 minutes ago, Spaceception said:

True, but how long would it last until the magic wore off?

After you answer, I think that's enough offtopic posts.

Actually, I think my Potter Firebolt Drive is almost exactly as realistic a propulsion system as a Bussard Ramjet or a big crate full of antimatter. Generation ships, that's the way to go! (Makes for some excellent Skiffy too.)

Although there is a lot to be said for using time-turners to multiply the effect of available boosters, it's The Ultimate Moar Boosters drive (Hereby trademarked as TUMB Drive.)

[Guest]

My favorite method so far is some sort of cycler route using large carrier vessels with payload boosted to match speeds and deccelerated at target.  Carriers are maintained at somewhere around 0.6~0.7C by particle accelerators along the route.  Still a long way off but the most feasible interstellar travel I've seen postulated since the fuel sources are basically static.  To get there we'd either need generation ships or Von Neuman probes to construct the route and investigate reasons to have the route in the first place.