762:, written by John G. Hemry under the pen name Jack Campbell, is a military science fiction series which various ships of all sizes utilize constant acceleration propulsion to travel distances within star systems. Taking into account relativistic effects on space combat, communication, and timing, the ships work in various formations to maximize firepower while minimizing damage taken. The series also features the use of Jump Drives for travel between stars using gravitational jump points as well as the use of Hypernets, which utilizes quantum entanglement and probability wave principles for long distance travel between massively constructed gates.
904:
117:
104:
Constant-thrust and constant-acceleration trajectories both involve a spacecraft firing its engine continuously. In a constant-thrust trajectory, the vehicle's acceleration increases during thrusting period, since the use of fuel decreases the vehicle mass. If, instead of constant thrust, the vehicle
475:
From the frame of reference of those on the ship the acceleration will not change as the journey goes on. Instead the planetary reference frame will look more and more relativistic. This means that for voyagers on the ship the journey will appear to be much shorter than what planetary observers see.
439:
constant acceleration, it will appear to get near the speed of light in about a year, and have traveled about half a light year in distance. For the middle of the journey the ship's speed will be roughly the speed of light, and it will slow down again to zero over a year at the end of the journey.
427:. This means that the effects of relativity will become important. The most important effect is that time will appear to pass at different rates in the ship frame and the planetary frame, and this means that the ship's speed and journey time will appear different in the two frames.
754:, features a crewed Moon rocket with an unspecified 'atomic rocket motor'. The ship constantly accelerates from takeoff to provide occupants with consistent gravity, until a mid-way point is reached where the ship is turned around to constantly decelerate towards the Moon.
622:, with superseded antimatter powered constant acceleration drives. The effects of relativistic travel are an important plot point in several stories, informing the psychologies and politics of the lighthuggers' "ultranaut" crews for example.
464:
399:
approach — will lose efficiency as the space craft's speed increases relative to the planetary reference. This happens because the fuel must be accelerated to the spaceship's velocity before its energy can be extracted, and that will cut the
414:
A second big issue facing ships using constant acceleration for interstellar travel is colliding with matter and radiation while en route. In mid-journey any such impact will be at near light speed, so the result will be dramatic.
277:
522:" is a science fiction short story by Robert A. Heinlein, first published 1953. In the story, a torchship pilot lights out from Earth orbit to Pluto on a mission to deliver a cure to a plague ravaging a research station.
363:
411:. If the near-light-speed space craft is interacting with matter that is moving slowly in the planetary reference frame, this will cause drag which will bleed off a portion of the engine's acceleration.
455:, will be the distance in light years to the destination, plus 1 year. This rule of thumb will give answers that are slightly shorter than the exact calculated answer, but reasonably accurate.
605:, interstellar travel is achieved by converting a small asteroid into a constant acceleration spacecraft. Force is applied by ion engines fed with material mined from the asteroid itself.
387:
Drawing propulsion energy from the environment as the ship passes through it (the sailing ship approach). One hypothetical sailing ship approach is discovering something equivalent to the
435:
From the planetary frame of reference, the ship's speed will appear to be limited by the speed of light — it can approach the speed of light, but never reach it. If a ship is using 1
108:
The spacecraft must flip its orientation halfway through the journey and decelerate the rest of the way, if it is required to rendezvous with its destination (as opposed to a flyby).
423:
If a space ship is using constant acceleration over interstellar distances, it will approach the speed of light for the middle part of its journey when viewed from the planetary
483:, a rocket could travel the diameter of our galaxy in about 12 years ship time, and about 113,000 years planetary time. If the last half of the trip involves deceleration at 1
467:
Plot of velocity parameters and times on the horizontal axis, versus position on the vertical axis, for an accelerated twin roundtrip to a destination with Δx
190:
60:
toward its destination, and for the second half of the journey it would constantly decelerate the spaceship. Constant acceleration could be used to achieve
487:, the trip would take about 24 years. If the trip is merely to the nearest star, with deceleration the last half of the way, it would take 3.6 years.
651:" features an "asymptotic drive", which utilises a microscopic black hole and hydrogen propellant, to achieve a similar acceleration travelling from
551:
make extensive use of constant acceleration; they require elaborate safety equipment to keep their occupants alive at high acceleration (up to 25
373:
A limitation of constant acceleration is adequate fuel. Constant acceleration is only feasible with the development of fuels with a much higher
384:
Higher efficiency fuel (the motor ship approach). Two possibilities for the motor ship approach are nuclear and matter–antimatter based fuels.
973:
875:
845:
815:
299:
1023:
929:
788:
157:
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1103:
1098:
1058:
675:
688:
781:
Calculations for
Science Fiction Writers/Space Travel with Constant Acceleration - The Nonrelativistic Case
388:
1038:
1108:
742:
17:
747:
663:
531:
618:, interstellar commerce depends upon "lighthugger" starships which can accelerate indefinitely at 1
683:
make use of constant acceleration drives, which also provide artificial gravity for the occupants.
627:
597:
580:
163:
137:
125:
92:
81:
65:
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and back in 150 years ships time (most of it in cold sleep), but 3 million years passes on Earth.
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167:
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852:
632:
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575:
374:
166:, from the point of view of Earth as a function of the traveler's time is expressed by the
589:
547:
496:
401:
290:
56:. For the first half of the journey the propulsion system would constantly accelerate the
53:
128:
can travel vast distances, although is limited by the mass of any propellant it carries.
1051:
894:
758:
648:
571:
408:
396:
133:
272:{\displaystyle x(\tau )={\frac {c^{2}}{a}}\left(\cosh {\frac {a\ \tau }{c}}-1\right),}
1087:
1015:
908:
640:
535:
448:
145:
727:
701:
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542:
511:
are possible if the crew is drugged with gravanol to counteract the effects of the
42:
963:
865:
835:
805:
148:(the difference in time flow between ship time and local time) become important.
567:
563:
174:
34:
507:, but in "The External Triangle" it is mentioned that accelerations of up to 5
735:
659:
57:
38:
965:
Explorations in
Mathematical Physics: The Concepts Behind an Elegant Language
1071:
1008:
Misner, Charles W.; Kip S. Thorne; John
Archibald Wheeler (September 1973).
895:
Trajectories with
Constant Tangential Thrust in Central Gravitational Fields
719:
693:
116:
559:
even when "at rest" to provide humans with a comfortable level of gravity.
463:
105:
has constant acceleration, the engine thrust decreases during the journey.
920:
Edwin F. Taylor & John
Archibald Wheeler (1966 - first edition only)
751:
731:
526:
519:
968:(illustrated ed.). Springer Science+Business Media. p. 242.
503:
stories are all constant acceleration ships. Normal acceleration is 1
380:
There are two broad approaches to higher specific impulse propulsion:
132:
A spaceship using significant constant acceleration will approach the
585:
49:
666:
saga utilize a constant acceleration drive that can accelerate at 1
391:
between wind and water which allows sails to propel a sailing ship.
358:{\displaystyle t(\tau )={\frac {c}{a}}\sinh {\frac {a\ \tau }{c}}.}
807:
Doing
Physics with Scientific Notebook: A Problem Solving Approach
705:
462:
452:
115:
907:
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the
709:
867:
Special
Relativity for Beginners: A Textbook for Undergraduates
289:
Under the same circumstances, the time elapsed on Earth (the
945:
C. Lagoute and E. Davoust (1995) The interstellar traveler,
901:, NASA Lewis Research Center, 1960 (accessed 26 March 2014)
810:(illustrated ed.). John Wiley & Sons. p. 382.
932:, Chapter 1, Exercise 51, pp. 97–98: "Clock paradox III" (
570:, Earth uses constant acceleration drives in the form of
538:, has a spaceship using a constant acceleration drive.
68:. This mode of travel has yet to be used in practice.
443:
As a rule of thumb, for a constant acceleration at 1
302:
193:
91:, potentially sparing passengers from the effects of
293:) as a function of the traveler's time is given by:
471:=10c/α ~10 light years away if α~9.8 m/s.
722:, the protagonist's spaceship uses a constant 1.5
357:
271:
584:, Jerome Branch Corbell (for himself), "takes" a
152:Expressions for covered distance and elapsed time
64:, making it a potential means of achieving human
76:Constant acceleration has two main advantages:
837:Relativistic Flight Mechanics and Space Travel
726:acceleration spin drive to travel between the
643:, is capable of constant acceleration at 0.2
80:It is the fastest form of interplanetary and
8:
1076:. Greenleaf Publishing Company. p. 164.
100:Constant thrust versus constant acceleration
1056:. Astounding Science Fiction. p. 49.
334:
318:
301:
237:
215:
209:
192:
658:The UET and Hidden Worlds spaceships of
31:Space travel under constant acceleration
18:Space travel using constant acceleration
771:
162:The distance traveled, under constant
124:(10 m/s or about 1.0 ly/y) "felt" or
7:
1039:Baez, UCR, "The relativistic rocket"
451:), the journey time, as measured on
395:Picking up fuel along the way — the
120:This plot shows a ship capable of 1-
647:under full thrust. Clarke's novel "
25:
41:system that generates a constant
902:
870:. World Scientific. p. 99.
704:to transport astronauts between
479:At a constant acceleration of 1
180:at constant proper acceleration
840:. Springer Nature. p. 33.
578:. In the non-known space novel
1050:Smith, George O. (1942–1945).
924:(W.H. Freeman, San Francisco)
312:
306:
203:
197:
158:Hyperbolic motion (relativity)
1:
574:to help colonize the nearest
419:Interstellar traveling speeds
27:Proposed mode of space travel
1070:Heinlein, Robert A. (1953).
72:Constant-acceleration drives
33:is a hypothetical method of
981:Extract of page 242 (where
37:that involves the use of a
1125:
834:Richard F. Tinder (2022).
779:Haloupek, William (2013).
750:series of comic albums by
377:than presently available.
155:
639:, using a muon-catalyzed
566:universe, constructed by
431:Planetary reference frame
52:produced by traditional
804:Joseph Gallant (2012).
700:uses a constant thrust
670:or even a little more.
555:), and accelerate at 1
286:is the speed of light.
45:rather than the short,
864:J rgen Freund (2008).
783:. Smashwords Edition.
472:
389:parallelogram of force
359:
273:
129:
899:Technical Report R-63
743:Explorers on the Moon
466:
360:
274:
119:
748:Adventures of Tintin
532:hard science fiction
459:Ship reference frame
300:
191:
1094:Interstellar travel
823:Extract of page 382
628:2061: Odyssey Three
581:A World Out of Time
407:A related issue is
168:coordinate distance
164:proper acceleration
126:proper acceleration
112:Interstellar travel
87:It creates its own
82:interstellar travel
66:interstellar travel
62:relativistic speeds
1104:Special relativity
1099:Space colonization
1059:Extract of page 49
962:Koks, Don (2006).
883:Extract of page 99
853:Extract of page 33
603:Mary Doria Russell
495:The spacecraft of
473:
425:frame of reference
355:
269:
184:. It is given by:
144:effects including
142:special relativity
130:
89:artificial gravity
1053:Venus Equilateral
1014:. San Francisco:
975:978-0-387-32793-8
922:Spacetime Physics
877:978-981-277-159-9
847:978-3-031-79297-7
817:978-0-470-66598-5
715:Project Hail Mary
681:James S. A. Corey
616:Alastair Reynolds
576:planetary systems
501:Venus Equilateral
350:
342:
326:
253:
245:
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173:as a function of
16:(Redirected from
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696:, the spaceship
635:, the spaceship
633:Arthur C. Clarke
611:Revelation Space
375:specific impulse
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1018:. Section 6.2.
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893:W. E. Moeckel,
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664:Rissa Kerguelen
590:Galactic Center
572:Bussard ramjets
548:The Forever War
497:George O. Smith
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402:fuel efficiency
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291:coordinate time
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759:The Lost Fleet
649:Imperial Earth
545:'s 1974 novel
541:Spacecraft in
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404:dramatically.
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156:Main article:
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140:distances, so
134:speed of light
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1021:
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1016:W. H. Freeman
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746:, one of the
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673:Ships in the
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641:fusion rocket
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625:In the novel
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1109:Acceleration
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138:interstellar
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93:microgravity
75:
43:acceleration
35:space travel
30:
29:
1011:Gravitation
689:The Martian
598:The Sparrow
568:Larry Niven
564:Known Space
369:Feasibility
175:proper time
1088:Categories
766:References
736:40 Eridani
718:, also by
702:ion engine
679:series by
660:F.M. Busby
655:to Earth.
614:series by
491:In fiction
58:spacecraft
39:propulsion
694:Andy Weir
534:novel by
344:τ
332:
310:τ
256:−
247:τ
235:
201:τ
47:impulsive
1073:Sky Lift
993:=1 and x
952::221–227
732:Tau Ceti
637:Universe
527:Tau Zero
520:Sky Lift
676:Expanse
608:In the
588:to the
562:In the
515:-load.
50:thrusts
1022:
997:=x(0))
972:
928:
874:
844:
814:
787:
698:Hermes
586:ramjet
397:ramjet
341:
282:where
244:
178:τ
752:Hergé
712:. In
706:Earth
692:, by
653:Titan
601:, by
453:Earth
136:over
1020:ISBN
970:ISBN
926:ISBN
872:ISBN
842:ISBN
812:ISBN
785:ISBN
734:and
720:Weir
710:Mars
708:and
530:, a
409:drag
329:sinh
232:cosh
934:pdf
686:In
662:'s
631:by
595:In
499:'s
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989:,
950:63
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897:,
738:.
730:,
469:AB
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987:a
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983:g
978:.
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