Got 20 spare years?

[glatt]

Originally Posted by Happy Monkey

A math fan could figure out the real numbers.

I was hoping to trick you into doing the work for me. I don't care enough to do any work to figure it out.

[elSicomoro]

I will gladly pay you Tuesday for 20 light years today.

[BigV]

Originally Posted by HM's link

The next problem you have to solve is shielding. As you approach the speed of light you will be heading into an increasingly energetic and intense bombardment of cosmic rays and other particles. After only a few years of 1g acceleration even the cosmic background radiation is Doppler shifted into a lethal heat bath hot enough to melt all known materials.

Well, shit. Back to the drawing board.

[Happy Monkey]

Bah! An enginnering challenge.

As is an engine that can provide years worth of 1G accelleration for a spacecraft that can be self-sufficent for years.

[glatt]

Just feed the astronauts baked beans and point them towards the new planet.

[Perry Winkle]

There are also the problems of kidney failure, bone loss, heart failure...that sort of thing...ANES.

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by Happy Monkey

Bah! An enginnering challenge.

As is an engine that can provide years worth of 1G accelleration for a spacecraft that can be self-sufficent for years.

Nuke powered. I remember when they talked about trying to make a shuttle or some other space craft and they dropped it after concerns about showering the atmosphere with radiation if it broke up on re-entry or take-off.

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by BigV

Hmmm would five earth masses equal five times earth gravity?

The planet is 2G. Five times the mass, but it's also bigger, so the surface is further from the center of mass.

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

Nuke powered. I remember when they talked about trying to make a shuttle or some other space craft and they dropped it after concerns about showering the atmosphere with radiation if it broke up on re-entry or take-off.

A fission engine in space would operate very differently from one in a submarine. You still need some sort of reaction mass to throw out the back. Cassini has a nuclear power source, but it just uses the radioactive decay to power electronics. I'm pretty sure it uses standard chemical engines for steering.

[Happy Monkey]

A 1G accelleration avoids that, IIRC.


Though, actually, it occurs to me that they would probably want to get there a bit faster by gradually increasing the Gs so that they match the other planet by the time they get there.

[BigV]

Hmmm would five earth masses equal five times earth gravity? That would be quite heavy.... I don't think I could adapt in a mere six years of working out to over a thousand pounds of BIGV. Oof.

I can hear my knees crying for mercy already.

[piercehawkeye45]

I thought it was only one and half the mass of Earth?

Maybe that was only the size...

All I know is that I heard a 150 lb person would weight 240 lbs on that planet but we may have new information on it. Stupid Goodmorning America....

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by Griff

The new planet is about 50 percent bigger than Earth and about five times more massive.

Gravity is linear WRT mass, and inverse squared WRT distance. Pretending that 50% and 5 are exact numbers, the planet's gravity would be 1G * 5 / (1.5 * 1.5) = 2.222G, so a 150lb person would be 333lbs.

Those numbers are probably approximations, though, so 240 is probably right.