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Bubbagumpredditor t1_j5oozf0 wrote

Reply to comment by ferrel_hadley in How many years do you think we have until space travel? Something like cowboy bebop by Aware_Ad2047

It's not even huge acceleration, even minor acceleration gets you places relatively quick. I mean, mars is like 2 days away at one gee acceleration, and I think Pluto is two weeks.

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spacex_fanny t1_j5ovv0g wrote

Pretty much. The Earth-Mars transit would be 2-5 days, depends on planetary alignment, and also how close your ship can get to the Sun without overheating.

For Pluto it's about 18 days.

The simplified equation to calculate travel time is 2 × sqrt(distance / acceleration)

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Redditdrifter0 t1_j5ozfmx wrote

Dude that’s accelerating 22 mph every second until you get there…

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spacex_fanny t1_j5p0xx5 wrote

"You are technically correct, the best kind of correct."

Some may call it 'decelerating' for the second half, but in physics this also counts as accelerating (just in the opposite direction).

22 mph = 35 kph = 9.8 m/s = 33 ft/s

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Redditdrifter0 t1_j5p2w95 wrote

Yah but by the last second before deceleration on the first day wouldn’t you have to be traveling close to 2 million miles per hour? How’s that remotely feasible?

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spacex_fanny t1_j5p465b wrote

Yes, going ~850 km/s is not feasible today because we don't have torch drives like in The Expanse.

Torch drive / torchship is the generic term for the idea, an idea which has been used in various works of sci-fi. See more:

http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/torchships.php

https://www.orionsarm.com/eg-article/4df241e826b03

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