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Re: The Enterprise Project
Adam — (archived)

Perhaps a slight stretch of physics is to wonder what 'easy' mass annihilation would allow - for example, Frank Tipler's idea of macroscopic sphalerons allowing reverse baryogenesis and baryon number violation i.e. a 'proton burner'. If such a drive could turn mass into a stream of neutrinos then starships could launch directly from planetary surfaces - if they're not too big. Perhaps they'd be too big for land and would land in the sea - living up to the appellation 'star-ship' if only briefly.

A ship might launch off from a planet then hunt down a nice comet, latch on and use its mass for shielding and as propellant. Huge mass ratios might be possible, but the acceleration would need to be low so the comet doesn't disrupt. Perhaps it could be strengthened with nanotube fibres.

Continuous acceleration to the nearer stars would then be possible, though the trip-times would be longer than a 1 gee flight because the 'time squeeze' would be less. Going faster would require a ramscoop drive, which wouldn't be restricted by the need to compress hydrogen to fuse protons so it would get net thrust. One gee flight times to other stars are still long, but much less so than the light travel time.

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