My arXiv preprint on a crewed interstellar spacecraft

As some of you might know, I have designed a crewed interstellar spacecraft that I call Solar One.



Basically, large flexible mirrors placed near the Sun would propel a one-mile light sail with a 4–crew spacecraft of 300 tons.



To decelerate, an on-board compact fusion reactor would power a photon rocket placed at the front of the spacecraft that would 1) help decelerate and 2) ionize space hydrogen for the nuclear reactor.



A Bussard scoop also placed at the front of the spacecraft would 1) collect those protons (ionized hydrogen) and 2) decelerate the spacecraft.



Solar One would achieve an average of 22% the speed of light, which would allow the crew to reach the closest potentially habitable exoplanet in less than 19 years.



Of course cryo-sleep and artificial gravity must be achieved first.



Here is my paper in arXiv: arxiv.org...



And here a short movie of Solar One: youtu.be...



Feedback is appreciated!

a reply to: Alfa015015

Why not use the photon rocket to accelerate? Since it would take the same amount of energy to slow down when you get there. The light sail is pretty inefficient. More so as distance increases (inverse square rule).

"Decelerate" is not really a term in physics. Acceleration is a change in velocity. Meaning a change in speed or direction. So, instead of "decelerate", you should say "negative acceleration relative to the destination", or something like that.

I respect his effort(s). It's nothing new but it gets my respect nonetheless.

originally posted by: lostbook
I respect his effort(s). It's nothing new but it gets my respect nonetheless.

a reply to: Alfa015015

You should prepare a speech and take your ideas with you in a bag.
And present your project to NASA, they have the muscle to make it reality.
It could not hurt to try, you would get credited if success.

And if you want to get a foot in the door first you could apply for a job there.
www.usajobs.gov...