[Spktyr]

A double-ended Orion drive starship would appear to be the appropriate answer at our current level of technology.

[Future Snake Eater]

Federation starships have navigation shields for just these kinds of things.

[bsf2009]

I choose the freezarinos, even if it takes longer.

[HiTech RedNeck]

something to think of as you travel through the stars

[chessplayer]

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18532-starship-pilots-speed-kills-especially-warp-speed.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=space

Read the comments. Very interesting.

[count-your-change]

But as our traveler's speed increased to a significant percentage of light speed his mass would correspondingly increase and the the stray hydrogen atom would be little more than an insect on the windscreen.

[maddog55]

I know hydrogen atoms floating in the interstellar void screw the grill up on my truck when I hit 85mph so I can imagine what it would do at light speed.

[Malsua]

>>>Science fiction writers may have to rethink how their starship crews survive travel near or beyond the speed of light<<<

Larry Niven covered this years ago. The Bussard ramjet at the front of the ship channels the hydrogen into the fusion reaction. A massive magnetic bubble has to be in a certain spot to protect the crew. Anywhere else on the ship and the radiation is BEYOND intense. The ship “Long Pass” can be described here:

http://books.google.com/books?id=yCHLeej8jEwC&pg=PA11&lpg=PA11&dq=Larry+Niven+%22long+pass%22+ramjet&source=bl&ots=UCc4F7vdHe&sig=DslOiZNHW4ecNoFSyP0LWIxrP60&hl=en&ei=MBx9S5v-I-aA8QbW9MjoBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAcQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=&f=false

[djf]

But all the equations tell us nothing except light can travel at light speed.

So it is an asinine, oxymoronic conjecture in the first place.

[Falcon4.0]

Two words solve this problem.

"Navigational Deflectors."

[pappyone]

“...would translate into 7 teraelectron volts for a starship crew traveling at 99.999998 percent of the speed of light.”

Could be the clean energy solution we’ve been looking for.

[mad_as_he$$]

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Navigational_deflector

[GingisK]

In my science fiction of FTL, the wormhole is devoid of any matter. That is just the way it is with my starship. Get over it.

[Onelifetogive]

That's as much fun for humans as standing in front of the proton beam created by the Large Hadron Collider, according to William Edelstein, a physicist at Johns Hopkins University.

That's much better. I can really understand that analogy. If I had a Nickel for every time I have seen someone standing in front of the proton beam created by the Large Hadron Collider, I'd be a rich man.

[dfwgator]

That’s why they invented the Infinite Improbability Drive.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks sonofstrangelove.

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[M Kehoe]

The two most abundant elements in the universe are hydrogen atoms and stupidity.

5.56mm

[AFPhys]

I don’t know why anybody would be worried about this. All we need is a General Products hull and none of the radiation can penetrate anyway. Why the heck do you think I have devoted my life to contacting the puppeteers in order to be their agent here?