> the vast distances to other habitable planets would mean tens of thousands of years of travel even with the most efficient technology.
Spoken like someone who's never read Tau Zero
Spoken like someone who's never read Tau Zero
Plus, even Tau Zero's initial premise is a pipe dream.
You mean Sweden as a world superpower? :P
They travel across the known universe in less than the span of a human lifetime.
OP said "tens of thousands of years of travel".
Or are you being deliberately obtuse about relativistic time dilation?
I really find it hard to understand how people confuse science fiction with reality. I love Tau Zero - I first read it over 40 years ago - but it’s fiction, ffs.
That Bussard Ramjet, though, is thoroughly discredited. It can't possibly work. Hydrogen hydrogen fusion is a terribly slow nuclear reaction and if you had to stop the gas to give it enough time to react, you'd end up stopping the rocket not accelerating it. In fact, the most credible use of that kind of magnetic scoop is as a brake!