"It is now known that any prolonged human presence deeper in space would need to be behind a shield of the effective strength of two feet of lead, which would weigh 400 tonnes for a small capsule."
Uhm, the first thing that comes to my mind - regardless of whether this black hole propulsion might actually work - is the amount of lead we have available. Just building the spaceship seems to be just as much a problem as accelerating it..
Effective shielding against cosmic radiation is possibly an even greater problem in interplanetary travel than propulsion.
The solution will probably come from materials science, but at the moment I don't think there's enough effort being concentrated on this problem to solve it in my lifetime.
One thing the author doesn't address is why use lead at all? We know that Earth's magnetic field is what protects us here on the ground. If we could manufacture black holes, doesn't it seem possible that we could manufacture a magnetic field powerful enough to surround said ship and protect it?
You don't actually need to use lead. The key phrase there is "effective strength" so if you have a massive supply of energy at your fingertips, it may be feasible to divert some of it towards the creation of an artificial magnetosphere similar to Earth's own.
Of course you could also use water (obviously in much greater volume), which is a good thing to have in large quantities anyway while you're in space, and is evidently not all that uncommon, at least throughout our solar system.
Their proposed blackholes are small - some of their calculations use 4 × 10^11 grams [440.924 tons ~ comparable to Empire State Building which weights about 300.000 tons].
The radiation involved means that you probably couldn't shield a human well enough to be close enough to one of these black holes to feel gravity. Not to mention tidal forces.
[+] [-] nicara|16 years ago|reply
Uhm, the first thing that comes to my mind - regardless of whether this black hole propulsion might actually work - is the amount of lead we have available. Just building the spaceship seems to be just as much a problem as accelerating it..
[+] [-] hegemonicon|16 years ago|reply
Source: http://www.financialexpress.com/news/lead-uses-that-go-back-...
[+] [-] thaumaturgy|16 years ago|reply
The solution will probably come from materials science, but at the moment I don't think there's enough effort being concentrated on this problem to solve it in my lifetime.
[+] [-] warfangle|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] smhinsey|16 years ago|reply
Of course you could also use water (obviously in much greater volume), which is a good thing to have in large quantities anyway while you're in space, and is evidently not all that uncommon, at least throughout our solar system.
[+] [-] bioweek|16 years ago|reply
If we made a large enough one say 1/2 earth mass, we'd get free "artificial" gravity on the spaceship.
[+] [-] amix|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] randallsquared|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bioweek|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bitwize|16 years ago|reply
"Dimensional Wave Super String Excitation Degenerated Radius Jump Gravitational Field Super-light Speed Navigation. WARP for short."
[+] [-] unknown|16 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] caffeine|16 years ago|reply