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FrostedFlake -> RE: A rational discussion on the merits of various ship designs in Sci Fi (3/23/2014 10:57:01 PM)
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Mass fraction refers to the portion of a spacecraft NOT filled with engines and fuel. A significant mass fraction is a useful one, sufficient for controls and accommodations. The only interstellar craft with a significant mass fraction use a matter conversion drive. I don't know how it works, but let's suppose it does, draw a black box around it, label it "Magic", and fret no more.
Setting the controls to one gee and excitedly twiddling our thumbs for 347 days should, by straight-line back of the envelope calculation, bring us to C. But, Einstein says you can't do that. Because as you add speed, you also add mass. So you need more power to accelerate at the same rate. But, says I, it's a matter conversion drive. The fuel gets massiver too! Just as much massiver as the rest of the ship. The same percent is turned into power, so power out increases apace mass accumulation, without fiddling with the controls. So however heavy the ship gets, there is just enough power to push it ten meters per second faster, every second. So, without intervention, notice or drama, the ship should crash right through the light barrier leaving fragments of Universe scattered in the wake.
At that point, the ship, which might be the size of a Volkswagen bus, would have more mass than the rest of the Universe, added to the two Universes immediately contiguous. And the engines would be exactly that powerful.
Or so says the math.
I suspect there might be something wrong with it.
This got me a 'A' in basic physics.
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