Re: Interplanetary exploration in a fantasy setting (surgeon's general warning: contains reactionless drives)

KJK::Hyperion skreiv:
OK, let's try to salvage what we can of this derailed discussion.
There still were a couple unanswered points in my original post:

[...] a thick outer skin made of
layered steel, concrete and water tanks (which double as balancing
ballast).

Question: is this good enough on its own as radiation shielding? It is
my understanding that cosmic rays hitting the metal plates would
produce nasty electromagnetic radiation, but that water and ice and
concrete would provide good shielding against that. And what about
solar flares? I get the idea that they are events spacers *** bricks
at the mere thought of, but what would count as "good enough"
protection against them?

There are differences, but to a first aproximation, our atmosphere is
equivalent to 10 meters of water, or 10 tons of mass for every square
meter. Pretty much *any* kind of shielding that weighs 10tons/m^2 will
work.

You can probably get away with a bit less than 10 tons if you're willing
to live with somewhat higher radiation and/or if you choose your atoms
wisely.


Eivind Kjørstad
.

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