Interplanetary/Interstellar Travel

[Nod2003]

How significant are the effects of micrometeoroid impacts on interplanetary and interstellar travel?  The ISS does have some issues with these, but would the space in between planets have them at the same rate?  

Additionally, would a generational ship traveling to a star say 50 ly from here with current propulsion technology actually be able to remain intact without some kind of ablative armor or shielding, or would micrometeoroids eventually erode the hull til it breeches?

[QuantumT]

A mission starting now would depend of our technological ability to evade any object in our path. Shielding tech is still Star Trek stuff.

That being said, we still have no cryo tech to keep our crew alive for 1 light year, which would take approx. 200.000 years to complete with current max speed.

50 LY would take a million years. Give or take.

[swansont]

6 minutes ago, QuantumT said:

A mission starting now would depend of our technological ability to evade any object in our path. Shielding tech is still Star Trek stuff.

Um, no. The shielding tech portrayed in Star Trek is fictional, but that doesn’t represent all (or even most) of the options. A steel plate is shielding tech. 

 

 

[Nod2003]

I was thinking more along the lines of a Hyper-Velocity Whipple Shield than fighting Klingons.

[QuantumT]

17 minutes ago, swansont said:

Um, no. The shielding tech portrayed in Star Trek is fictional, but that doesn’t represent all (or even most) of the options. A steel plate is shielding tech. 

Evading would be preferable either way. Who'd like their life to depend on a hull?

[Janus]

34 minutes ago, Nod2003 said:

How significant are the effects of micrometeoroid impacts on interplanetary and interstellar travel?  The ISS does have some issues with these, but would the space in between planets have them at the same rate?  

Additionally, would a generational ship traveling to a star say 50 ly from here with current propulsion technology actually be able to remain intact without some kind of ablative armor or shielding, or would micrometeoroids eventually erode the hull til it breeches?

I remember a story by A.C. Clarke in which the interstellar craft used water as the reaction mass, which they carried as ice in front of the ship and this acted as their shielding during the acceleration phase of the trip.   During the deceleration phase the ship has exhaust spewing out ahead of it offering protection (If you are going to reach any respectable fraction of c with any reason able ship to fuel mass ratio, your exhaust velocity is going to be a good fraction of c itself.)

[Nod2003]

 

18 minutes ago, QuantumT said:

Evading would be preferable either way. Who'd like their life to depend on a hull?

Of course, though detecting and evading a grain of sand while traveling at 50km/sec seems a bit beyond our capabilities.

[swansont]

1 hour ago, QuantumT said:

Evading would be preferable either way. Who'd like their life to depend on a hull?

Consider the logistics of evasion. The ability to detect particles has an angular size limit, and you need to track for a period of time to get a trajectory. Some particles will be unavoidable. You may also not be able to avoid everything if multiple particles are in play. The kicker here is maneuvering will likely be a fuel hog.

(or refer to Nod’s more succinct response)

[QuantumT]

11 minutes ago, swansont said:

Consider the logistics of evasion. The ability to detect particles has an angular size limit, and you need to track for a period of time to get a trajectory. Some particles will be unavoidable. You may also not be able to avoid everything if multiple particles are in play. The kicker here is maneuvering will likely be a fuel hog.

Honesty, deep space travel sounds like a fools errand.

Maybe in a thousand years, when we got tech we can barely fathom now.

[Nod2003]

Thanks for the input QuantumT, but so far you really haven’t posted a single thing that relates to the actual question on the frequency of micrometeoroid impacts in interplanetary/interstellar space.

[Ken Fabian]

Sending detectors/drones ahead of the spaceship would give more warning and more opportunity to either evade or divert debri along the ship's course. Not that I think interstellar trips are likely to ever be within our technological capabilities; more feasible would be slow, uni-directional "colonisations" of deep space objects - presuming true self sufficiency, without loss or degradation of initial technological capabilities is possible under such circumstances. Each stop allows supplies to be refreshed and each new target is never beyond the support of the previous colonies.

[Moontanman]

I, of course, have a different take on interstellar travel based on the Winnebago! Large O'Neill cylinders or torus type space habitats will eventually travel to other stars by hoping from one small icy body to another, slowly spreading out like a new animal in a deserted habitat. Controlled fusion would be the key and we all know it's only 10 years away... Rendezvousing with icy bodies would mean the travelers would take thousands of years to get to another star but each icy body rendezvous would be a chance to top up on volatile elements and if the icy body was big enough use it to build more habitats.  Using this method we could occupy the entire galaxy in a few million to tens of millions of years and never even visit a planet. Planets would not be needed anymore than a Winnebago needs cities...