I did not realize that a 1 g drive would shrink the size of the solar
system so much. It is all we need, really, to "conquer" the solar
system and populate it.
The argument that people would not want to live on other planets
strikes me as fatuous and unobservant. Some people want to live in
Las Vegas, Hollywood or Abu Dhabi, which are more alien to me than Mars.
I do not think that travel at acceleration much above 1 g will ever
be popular, because it is uncomfortable. Trained astronauts could do
it, but ordinary folks would not want to. ~2 g for a few hours at the
beginning and end of a voyage would be okay.
This is a "reactionless" drive meaning it has no propellant. A real
sci-fi reactionless drive would work on all particles in the space
ship the way gravity does, with no push to the seat of the pants.
With something like that you could eventually cross the solar system
at close to the speed of light. That would shrink it to the
dimensions of the earth, today.
- Jed
