The bad news negates itself:
Considering C of E, a miss-aimed craft could not apply more energy to a
planet than was originally applied to the craft to bring it up to speed.
A continent-melting crash requires that more than a continent-melting
supply of fuel has been applied to/used by the craft.
Another consideration: The craft has to carry with it a similar amount
of energy, stored, to use for deceleration. And twice that again, to
come home.
If you account for different depths of gravity wells, it comes out
different, but not much. We were talking about speeds up towards light, no?
So conservation of energy, having obliterated CF (a little gratuitous
snark), now moves on to ruin our dreams of visiting other stars.
Dave B.
On 1/10/2014 5:14 PM, David Roberson wrote:
That is amazing! -snip-
I have never considered how much damage a space craft traveling near
light speed would inflict, but apparently it would be bad news.
Dave
