I think you will find the problems getting net power from nuclear fusion are identical whether you are using it to produce electricity or using it for propulsion. Currently no known method can achieve either.
As for speed, fundamental limits come into play due to conflicting engineering goals. Optimizing one parameter requires sacrificing another. Various physical laws impose limits to optimizing multiple engineering parameters simultaneously. The best concept utterly fails to achieve anything remotely resembling interstellar travel. What really buggers the whole idea is how early in the development phase these opposing constraints come into play. Like I said in an earlier post, it is as if this constraint is a prerequisite for the evolution of life in the universe. It's a universal truth.
Space/Science » in reply to 1 a non issue, 2 is a potential issue
LOL
The whole thread (56 posts)
- Aliens may have economic issues, too
- Think of seeds, not ivy+another solution to the paradox
- re: Aliens may have economic issues, too
- Maybe the answer is to use fewer resources...
- Interstellar travel is impossible, not just uneconomical
- False - Fusion sufficient
- Engineering Aliens - Think of Ayn Rand and Robert Heinlein
- FAST interstellar travel has a lot of hurdles for us at present
- We put our human limitations on any possible aliens.
- Not trying to
- re: Not trying to
- But what if that one species showed up a long time ago and left?
- Like I said, interstellar travel is impossible
- re: Not trying to
- Not trying to
- We put our human limitations on any possible aliens.
- FAST interstellar travel has a lot of hurdles for us at present
- re: Aliens may have economic issues, too
- Speculative
- re: Aliens may have economic issues, too