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RE: Solar power back up batteries are best found by thinking outside the box, The lead acid box that is....
Yes solar is not new. More efficient now, but not new.
An Ion drive, with breeder reactor power, and a scoop for fuel collection would make a good star ship.
:)>
ok..I suppose you're going to start building a star ship next.
I sure would like to! We could do it with what we have now. THAT would be Fun!
:)>we could do it now? then someone somewhere is working on one right?
There are designs floating. There is one that is a sailboat that uses light striking a mylar sail, for thrust. The most practical is the Ion drive using collected gasses for fuel. Very efficient, with a constant low level thrust, it would fly at a significant portion of the speed of light.
Quantum entanglement, might allow us to refuel it from here too.
The biggest restriction is money, not technology.
:)>sir smithlabs! How fast is a significant portion of the speed of light? what about g forces and all that?
An Ion engine, burning free fuel, can accelerate at a tenth gravity or so. Boosting for a long period you could reach seven or eight tenths of C.
Some of the closer stars could be reached in less than a century this way. THAT would be an amazing trip!
:)>sir smithlabs! seven or eight tenths of C. what's the C?
less than a century, most people would die before they got there or be too old to do anything.
C is the term for the speed of light.
This ship would need to be a generation ship. The new batch of crew members would be the ones that arrived, and explored.
:)>