Starship pilots: speed kills, especially warp speed

http://www.newscientist.com ^ | February 17 2010 | Valerie Jamieson

[Para-Ord.45]

Star Trek fans, prepare to be disappointed. Kirk, Spock and the rest of the crew would die within a second of the USS Enterprise approaching the speed of light.

The problem lies with Einstein's special theory of relativity. It transforms the thin wisp of hydrogen gas that permeates interstellar space into an intense radiation beam that would kill humans within seconds and destroy the spacecraft's electronic instruments.

[RightOnline]

Pshaw. Haven’t these twerps heard of “shields”?? Huh?? Huh??

[Da Coyote]

Oh, the humanity.

Captain, the dilithium crystals canna’ stand the strain......nor can my brain.

[thesharkboy]

For a crew to make the 50,000-light-year journey to the centre of the Milky Way within 10 years

Huh? If it takes light 50,000 years to make this distance, how are people going to do it in 10? Am I missing something?

[svcw]

Pretty sure that the Star Trek franchise is just fantasy but I could be wrong.
(Oh yea, Klingons are more of a warrior race than Romulans.)

[al baby]

Dude its just a TV show

[cripplecreek]

Actually the Enterprise didn’t travel at light speed.

[Mmogamer]

Thats what the navigational deflector is for.

[Psycho_Bunny]

Man....if you're going to bring Star Trek into your story, you should at least know the canon. The "warp field" kept a pocket of space around the ship from exceeding the speed of light. And the deflector deflected particles and radiation.

......I know too much about this.

[svcw]

You are correct.

[jrg]

A TV Show I can no longer watch because of all the Star Trek Dorks.

[rabidralph]

Special relativity

Should that be spacial or spatial?

[Tijeras_Slim]

Anyone who uses Sieverts, Becquerels, or for that matter Greys is a pretentious prick... Stick with Rads!

[The Working Man]

I was going to jump in, but your explanation says it all!

[Fiddlstix]

......For a crew to make the 50,000-light-year journey to the centre of the Milky Way within 10 years, they would have to travel at 99.999998 per cent the speed of light......

HUH???
Hey there, Doc!
Methinks you need to check your math......

[al baby]

I never got into any of the new series But Marina Sirtis looked like a lot of fun

[ConservativeMind]

You have to excerpt from that site. You can’t post the whole thing.

Besides, it’s a hugely liberal site, anyway. They are Global Warming freaks there like you can’t believe.

Go to Phyorg.com instead for your science.

[cripplecreek]

Thank you. LOL

[Bender2]

Gadzooks! Now we know why the Øbamanation... killed the American manned space flight program!

[Windcatcher]

Relativistic time dilation. To an observer on Earth, the spacecraft would take the full 50,000 years to reach its destination, but to the crew the journey would only take 10 years.