ScrotiusRex t1_j10vpk6 wrote on December 20, 2022 at 9:19 PM

Reply to comment by Selfless- in How would we get about traveling through deep space? by MysteryMystery305

It took 35 years for Voyager 1 to escape the solar system so passengers on a generation ship would indeed get to leave the system that birthed them but after that they'd only see void for the rest of their lives which is entirely a bleak thought.

TangoKlass t1_j10ylka wrote on December 20, 2022 at 9:38 PM

honestly the trip to the edge was mostly 35 of bleakness. So no different.

ScrotiusRex t1_j119mb0 wrote on December 20, 2022 at 10:53 PM

True but at least there's the dim light of a nearby sun.

Kind of like that moment before land disappears over the horizon at sea and you realise you're just surrounded by nothing.

Except it's a whole lot more nothing.

[deleted] t1_j11l3ds wrote on December 21, 2022 at 12:16 AM

[removed]

Bipogram t1_j10wfr5 wrote on December 20, 2022 at 9:23 PM

Voyager 1 was the business end of a terribly large mass-fraction consisting mostly of a Titan Centaur combo.

Thus, it was able to leave cis-lunar space with a stupidly high C3, allowing the Grand Tour.

A generation ship will be orders of orders of magnitude more massive. And probably has to be built at L4/L5 (or similar).

ScrotiusRex t1_j10yjyk wrote on December 20, 2022 at 9:37 PM

That's a good point alright, though I would like to think if we did get to that stage we'd have advanced past current gen chemical rockets but would presumably also involve multiple gravity assists to send it on its way.

>And probably has to be built at L4/L5 (or similar).

The bulk of the easily attainable resources would be out in the asteroid belt so would that not be an ideal place to build?

LoneSnark t1_j11cm4x wrote on December 20, 2022 at 11:14 PM

We are already past chemical rockets. Ion Thrusters are a thing and can get you going 100 times the propellant velocity of a chemical rocket. I presume the ship would have a nuclear reactor rigged and sized to work for the journey with solar panels to power most of the propulsion. The ship will first thrust deeper into the solar system to get more solar power and set up gravity assists with Venus to reach Jupiter and then a grand alignment with multiple gravity assists on the final way out of the system to get itself going the right direction. As they leave the system and solar power falls off they'll have to throttle down. Maybe they'll have electro-static collectors to collect stray hydrogen on the way that they can feed into the Ion engines using whatever spare nuclear power they have each day. Then reverse the process upon arrival.