From: Jeff Davis (jrd1415@yahoo.com)
Date: Mon Sep 09 2002 - 18:01:32 MDT
Friends,
Eugen Leitl wrote:
"The density of interstellar gas is about 1 particle /
cm^3. Intergalactic medium is much thinner,
approaching 1 particle / m^3. Bulk of it is
hydrogen, the rest of it is helium. Number of impacts
is directly proportional to your speed of travel.
Relativistic effects begin to take hold at roughly 0.9
c. In terms of impact/s, there is not much difference
between 0.9 c and 0.99 c, it's the impact energy which
goes up asymptotically. Protons at 80% c is 590 MeV."
---------------------------
Question: All this relative velocity is along the
direction of travel, no? Why go for the tough
guy/head-on uber-armor approach? (Tungsten: Hard,
dense, ultra-high melting point, grunt, grunt.) How
about the needle-nosed
streamlined-cowling Aikido-finesse approach? Long and
tapered. Very long and very tapered. Supple, not
rigid, thin not thick(one atom thick?) so as to
minimize mass. Then, rather than ramming them full
on, and having to deal with that level of damage
protection--"Crater me if you can, pal!"-- you merely
deflect them to the side. If the taper is 1000 to one
then the relative velocity (impact velocity) is
reduced by a factor of 1000, no? And, of course one
can supplement this with a forward-reaching EM
field/shield which gives a non-contact lateral nudge
to the particle before you even meet up with it.
This material selection business is not my forte,
but--caveats deployed-- let me take a shot at it
anyway. The material for this cowling should be as
light as possible--nearest inertial match to p and
alpha-- so as to bend rather than break with the
impact. It should have the highest possible bond
strength so it can resist breaking on impact. Carbon
is relatively light and has the highest of bond
strengths, so--first guess--call in the buckytubes.
That's it for moi. Ready. Aim. Fire away.
Best, Jeff Davis
"Everything's hard till you know how to do it."
Ray Charles
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