Get to Lightspeed by using Light itself

interstellar space is not so diffrent from the sun

99.99% of all matter is hydrogen.

of all hydrogen about 30% is ionized .
ion's have charge and are effect'd by magnetic feilds.

if you can pull the ion tword you at a speed greater that the speed of light , they are converted into light .

if the light is lens'd to fall on your ship , and changed into electrical power ... you have the power to pull your ship thru space.

in effect , you charge that material in front of your craft , into ions, then pull the ions tword you with a force so sudden they explode into light , clearing the matter befor you , pulling you thru space like a worm crawling thru the ground leaving a hole of emptyness behind you .

the faster you go , the larger your input energy , the larger your magnetic feild can be , which accerates you more , giving a larger feild ...
you have a theoretical positive feed back curve which is limited only by your systems ablity to handle power and genarate magnetic feilds .

the universal cosmic soup of hydrogen gas is a wall , like water is to a swimmer .
no matter how big your energy source , no amount of power can over come the resistance of the soup as you aproach the speed of light .
unless and untill it is removed , 10% or the speed of light is beyond any power that a solide object can manage .
by useing this ' cosmic soup ' as your fuel , your very energy source ... no only is it not a problem , it is your method of 90% SOL , energy management , on craft power use , and craft directional controls will be the only limit to 99.99% SOL .

sadly , this math/physic's problem was understood in the 60's
and discussed with no new technology needed except " super conductivity " of magnetic feilds .
at the time I heard of this , we did not have super conductivity , but needed it to make the math work.
i heard of solar sails at that time , as a "less effective" concept than the " sux thru space on ion mag's " concept .

frankly speaking , this is not a materials or technology problem , its a concept and math problem .

my smart friends tell me , the energy input manifold is plankton exposed to light . the 2 G's exocellaration would take 100 years to reach " bloom " velocity where it would self genarate more energy than/where the magnetic attractor would use less energy than it used.

the 2 G's would be inversely proportial to speed so , the pilot would never feel anything but 2 G's , but the accellaration would increase indirectly but as a functional percentage of feild size .

as a measure of speed of light , the feild would reach greater size , untill your feild would be infinite , your speed would be SOL and time would stop for the pilot .

this was all known in the early to mid 60's

( post script )

I might add , the name 'solar sail' used solar wind or a cosmic wind .... this is wholy and completely diffrent form , pulling material tword you in the ' mary poppin ' system .

in the 'mary poppins' system you pull 100 million tons of ion tword your 100 ton craft , moving the ion's one foot , and you 1 million feet forward +/- the practical % effecency of the whole system and its loss's .

with power loss in conversion of light to elecricity , transmission loss's to the mag's , and loss's in the mag's themselves ... you could never reach 70.7% ion attractor , where 'bloom' occures .

with current super cooled , supercondutivity ... not only is it posible , I suggest it is do-able .
getting some one crazy enought to want to fly in it is another matter completely ... but building a craft that in 100 to 200 years is plutting along at 37.6 % of the speed of light , and suddenly a ring of light explodes in front of it , is well with in our current technology .

if such a craft were buildt , I would guess it would be no further than one of the gas giants when it reached 'bloom ' but it would very likly leave solar system in its next 200 years and be well beyond our knowing befor it reach'd SOL

if the attractor was well behind its center of gravity ... it would 'weather vane' away from gravitational centers , and fly between solar systems and then galixacys ... never slowing down ... but forever reaching for greater and greater speed as its gravitational feild got larger .

reply to post by readerone


If I'm reading your posts correctly, it sounds like you're trying to describe a Bussard Ramjet .
There are several problems with the ramjet. First, most of the interstellar medium is the wrong kind of hydrogen to support it. Second, that you have huge problems building the 'scoop'. A physical scoop is an engineering nightmare to fabricate at all, never mind making it light enough and strong enough to do its job. An electromagnetic scoop is an energy hog, and will eventually build up a charge that will repel a good percentage of the incoming fuel. Third, there's friction. As pointed out above, space isn't empty (in fact, the Bussard Ramjet depends on that). At ramjet velocities, even the extremely thin interstellar medium has significant 'drag' on the vehicle.

As for the light-powered spaceship mentioned in the original postings, it's not a new idea. It's called a Solar Sail .

You can't use photons to power a 'photonic motor', at least not in any way that we currently understand, or that we can even postulate. You can, however, bounce them off a huge, featherweight mirror. You won't hit light speed with this trick....but over a few months, you can build up a fairly substantial delta-v without carrying any reaction mass.