Reply To: Iconography

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Jolly Roger wrote: Water is heavy. We need to keep the mass down, as the higher the mass the lower the acceleration applied to the ship by the engines. Though we will have some water shielding to protect the crew from neutrons, a much lighter magnetic bubble (such as M2P2) will deflect the charged particles of the solar wind. If the bubble is large enough (many miles) the solar wind can propel the craft.

Of course water is heavy! But when you have 1million ISP engines you can have a battlestar galactica ship worth in shielding with massive engine arrays and still travel to pluto and back with only 10% of you mass in fuel! Have you read the Scientific American article on spaceship shielding?
Basically a magnetic shield would be a gross hazard for the crew, would require a large cryogenic support structure and expensive superconducting magnets. A magnetic bubble would require fuel (to be plasmafied) and though it could shield against solar wind it would be useless against high powered cosmic rays.

Artificial gravity can be generated aboard a small craft by revolving the crew