Subscribe to New Scientist

Space

Feeds
Reply to a comment

Fundamental Problems

Fri Nov 27 21:24:13 GMT 2009 by Membrane

A 1Kg object traveling at 2/3c "I used around 67% c" would only have 31,999,279,384,000,000 joules in the form of kinetic energy.

The rest mass energy of that object going by E=mc^2 would be 89,875,517,800,000,000 joules.

It's total mass energy would be increased by a little over 1/3.

The kinetic energy will not exceed the rest mass energy until 86.7% c.

Even then this is not an upper limit for an anti matter rocket as the vehicle could have stages.

In the case of the dark energy rocket it's not carrying it's fuel.

Even fusion can top 10% c as in project Daedalus who's goal was to get a probe to 12%c.

ADVERTISEMENT

Latest news articles

Early Snowball Earth may have melted to a mudball

11:00 28 November 2009

If the icy tropics of 700 million years ago were covered in dust, this could have helped melt the ice

Art, embodied

13:00 27 November 2009

A new exhibit at the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo celebrates the intersection of art and science in the human body - featuring works from Leonardo da Vinci to Damien Hirst.

Today on New Scientist: 27 November 2009

18:03 27 November 2009

Today's stories on newscientist.com, at a glance, including: the first basic blueprint for bacteria, the high-carbon future, and how the hammerhead got its hammer

New Scientist TV – November 2009Movie Camera

17:11 27 November 2009

Find out how videoconferences could go 3D, how we interact with animals and how an ultra-realistic 3D map was made, in this month's New Scientist vodcast

ADVERTISEMENT

Partners

We are partnered with Approved Index. Visit the site to get free quotes from website designers and a range of web, IT and marketing services in the UK.

Login for full access