[Kryptid]

What about college graduates?

[Bored chemist]

That is why all of your posts contain direct insults ,

For example...

[Bored chemist]

As far as the company biz goes , it was a cab company

I don't drive.
I have never ran a cab company.
Your claim that I have done so, or said that I have done so is bizarre.

[Professor Mega-Mind (OP)]

I'm not going to be furthering the personal carp anymore , just the technical .
P.M.

[Bored chemist]

I'm not going to be furthering the personal carp anymore , just the technical .
P.M.

So, when you get caught lying you follow your own advice which was "Now , if you can't hold your weight in debate , withdraw , do not queef out !  "

I guess that's good.
Pity you didn't have the honesty to admit you goofed.

[Professor Mega-Mind (OP)]

   Optimum Spaceship Design ?
 Let the assumption be that we have developed an effective Impulse Drive .  Not a rocket , not an ion thruster , but a powerful & efficient , nuclear-powered , drive mechanism . This being the case we can presume peak travel velocities in excess of 1 million miles per hour .  Although such a ship can afford to carry adequate radiation shielding for the job , interplanetary dust and debris pose a lethal danger .  At full speed , one pea-sized rock would impact a ship with more explosive power than a stick of dynamite .  Such an impact would punch through blunt shielding , wrenching the ship badly , and spraying deadly shrapnel through it's interior .  To prevent this , a different type of shield is necessary .  The most effective design would be a long cone .  This would be slightly wider than the ship , and held ahead of the ship by flexible mounts .  Constructed mainly of high-tech , impact-absorbing materials , it would be coated with a thick  layer of iron sand , contained within an aluminum skin .  The resultant composite effect would absorb tremendous  energy , and yet be reasonably light .
 The ship proper would be a long, thin , pencil-like design . In other words ; a Needle-Ship .  The crew working & living spaces would be directly behind the cone .  The supplies & auxiliary craft would be next , the Impulse Drive machinery would be after that , and the Reactors ( w/minimal shielding ) would be last .
Electric thrusters would arranged about the ship for fine attitude control .  Heat radiators , solar panels , antennas , etc. would all be arranged strategically on the ship exterior. 
 The final requirement would be the trajectory .  In order to minimize in-flight impacts , the ship would need to follow a parabolic trajectory , rising up above the plane of the ecliptic .  This would place the high-speed portion of it's course above 99% of possible impactors .
 A ship of this type would benefit from full recycling of organic waste products .  Pre-positioning of LNG would also improve capability .  A two-ship formation would magnify safety and redundancy , and possibly allow for tethered , centripetal gravity as well .
 Alright , this would kick 2001s Odyssey all over the place !
 Enjoy your new spaceship ! .P.M.

*The real preposition begins on page.8 , Reply # 145 . All before that is exploritory .

[Professor Mega-Mind (OP)]

*Actual preposition begins on page # 8 , reply # 145 .  Prior discussion is exploratory .
P.M.
*Note to Hayseed : Interacting with anything at 70million mph. will be extremely problematic . Likely it will be much easier to design the ships to be vacuum-filled "pass-through" ships , full of astronaut "peopsicles" . No ship-destroying shockwaves that way .
P.M.
 

[Hayseed]

From the first post, redundant large and powerful field emitters will be needed.   And redundant laser scanners to detect and ionize neutral particles.

You will have to clear a path.

OR, instead of deflecting......collect all close matter and use it for fuel.

At those speeds, you might collect mega watts of charge.

Live off the land.

[Professor Mega-Mind (OP)]

Mr. Hayseed (fever ?) ,
The energy required to ionize and manipulate the interstellar-medium is enormous . It's much more than you could garner by fusing the bit of deuterium you collected .
*Don't lose heart though , R-D is right around the corner .
*Read thread : Reactionless Drives Possible ?
P.M.

[Kryptid]

At those speeds, you might collect mega watts of charge.

Charge isn't measured in megawatts.

[Hayseed]

Ok P.M.   Hayseed for simple intellect. 

I read the first few pages of the reaction-less drive thread.  I can't go for it.

No one more than me, believes that the hobbit novels, doesn't hold a candle to modern science fantasy theory.

But your idea of motion does not agree with experience.   This is not to say the experience has revealed all possibilities.

May I ask, why a reaction-less drive?  Is it so we don't have to carry mass?   Or to prove the space has some kind of usable characteristic?

I would think success would be much more likely in exploiting an established gradient, such as gravity or our systems charge gradient.  There might be other gradients.

It would be nice to know what is accelerating Sol's charge out beyond Neptune.  Not to mention where it all ends up.

We sail thru and against the wind, why not thru and against a charge wind?   Perhaps a magnetic and/or electrostatic sail. 

The sail might possibly act as a shield/collector also.

[Professor Mega-Mind (OP)]

Yes , carrying reaction-mass is deadly for space-drives .
The technical explanations are less obtuse , in the last few thread-pages .
Think of the "Compton-Effect" as a converter ; it takes the enormous thermal energy contained in light , and transmutes it into kinetic-energy .
A simpler device is examined in thread : *Discussion on Reactionless-Drive .
Links on pages # 1 and 8 .
As to using Sol-System fields for propulsion , they are weak , and run out of gas quickly .
P.M.
__________________________________
*Note : For an in-depth look at efficient reaction-drive possibilities , go to thread - Can an Impulse-Engine be made ?  Begin Reply # 32 .
www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/index.php?topic=74724.new;topicseen#new 

[Kryptid]

I read the first few pages of the reaction-less drive thread.  I can't go for it.

Good, because it's wrong. Conservation of momentum kills it dead.

[Professor Mega-Mind (OP)]

Well guuud , then ya don't need to give yer self a migraine thinnin' about it !
P.