Magnetic Propulsion to Speed of Light?

The Large Hadron collider is using a bunch of giant magnets to propel some protons to "99.999999999999" the speed of light.

I am just wondering if any resident physicists or those with scientific knowledge can explain why it would therefore not be possible to use much larger magnets to propel a ship of some sort into outer space at 99% the speed of light.
Or would this require magnets of such huge proportions that they would have to be as big or bigger than the Earth itself? Also I suppose there's the acceleration factor, i.e. a human probably wouldn't survive the G forces of going from 0 to 99% of speed of light in only a fraction of a second or what have you.

reply to post by Fulcrum29


Cern's propulsion is contained in a tube with super conducting material (which only exists when cooled with Nitrogen or Helium) and magnets. To make this possible to travel into space we would have to build a launch tube with magnets and superconducting material so large it would not be worth it. Plus it would be exposed to the elements. The speeds involved as well would be too much for the human body to endure.

-Kdial1

It's possible to do it with real items, that's what a rail gun is, it uses magnetic fields to fire things at ridiculous speeds. Problem is they break due to the extreme force and use tonnes of energy so they aren't very practical for space craft. If you accelerated a craft to near light speed that quickly it would just be destroyed by the extreme forces.

And as kdial1 said the machines and energy needed to make a working system would be too expensive, no one would ever do it.

So it's not that it's not possible it's just impractical!

Originally posted by Fulcrum29
The Large Hadron collider is using a bunch of giant magnets to propel some protons to "99.999999999999" the speed of light.

I am just wondering if any resident physicists or those with scientific knowledge can explain why it would therefore not be possible to use much larger magnets to propel a ship of some sort into outer space at 99% the speed of light.
Or would this require magnets of such huge proportions that they would have to be as big or bigger than the Earth itself? Also I suppose there's the acceleration factor, i.e. a human probably wouldn't survive the G forces of going from 0 to 99% of speed of light in only a fraction of a second or what have you.

It is possible and the rate of acceleration can be easily controlled. The amount of power required would actually be less than what we currently use to send up a shuttle. We currently employ something similar in the newest amusement park rides.

Some of the problems here are the amount of track that would be necessary to control or limit the rate of acceleration against our gravity to maintain tolerances of humans and our equipments capacity. Another issue with electromagnetism is the residual magnetic effect on ferric materials and electronics.

With a substantial length of track, we must concern ourselves with any interference on or around the track, such as a cow, a bird or a friendly little turtle. And about the system as a whole, they just can’t seem to shield enough against the powerful gauss effect, created by the long length of magnetic track that is needed to reach escape velocity, to allow all of the electronic circuits to work properly after a launch. However, G-force is relative to motion, inertia and gravity and in space there is no natural gravity, so a rail could accelerate an object or a person to great velocity, that nearing the SOL, from a very short piece of track without the negative effects experience here on Earths surface.

A lot could go wrong and believe it or not, NASA really does do a good job at calculating contingencies. This idea has been intriguing and variations of electromagnetic propulsion with liquid or solid fuel combinations have been calculated. It is still a WHIP.

But a few more alternative ideas have surfaced that warrant serious consideration and study. One such is a project of study whereas a type of shuttle pod which uses a specific type of plasma propulsion system that is directed and ignited by an external source, such as an overhead space station or satellite. Sort of a space elevator, highly effective, very efficient, doesn’t rely on speed to escape Earths gravity but they are still working on the safety angle. Another is the SCRAM jet system, yet another would be a variation of the SCRAM jet with a plasma pulse and so on.

At least, so I am told.