V
voyager12
Guest
This is one of those difficult topics that isn't strictly science fact, <br />nor is it completely science fiction, so I am hoping this posting is <br />not going to be thought of as inappropriate by this group. Assuming it <br />isn't, here goes. Suppose that through a long number of decades of <br />on-orbit engineering in a future era, humanity has managed to patch <br />together an interstellar ark of the sort of dimensions and mass I have <br />outlined in my sci-fi concept 'First Ark to Alpha Centauri'. <br /><br />Now, suppose this object is orbiting above the Earth at around 28,000 <br />miles (just past the Geostationary satellite belt) and it grosses a <br />final mass of some 1.8 x 10^14 kg (circa 10% of Deimos - the smaller <br />moon of Mars). Now, since no science authority has yet modelled such a <br />large-scale interstellar vehicle, I'm wondering if the timescales and <br />the dynamical sequences for departure from our solar system that I'm <br />visualising - or hypothesising - sound "about right"?! <br /><br />I don't have answers for the total amount of energy that's going to be <br />required nor the precise kind of propulsion or specific impulse of the <br />engines to hand, but I still want to project some kind of a realistic <br />timescale in order to get this craft booted out of our solar system... <br />on its way to Alpha Centauri. I have managed to patch together an <br />article here that I think (and hope) looks right:- <br /><br />http://www.astroscience.org/abdul-ahad/firstarktoalphacentauri/escape-sequence.htm<br /><br />Now, I want some views from experts here if they see any major flaws or <br />have a violent disagreement with my projections. Thanks for any serious <br />thoughts. <br /><br />AA