08-24-2018, 07:46 PM
Why not leave after the Technocalypse, as part of the general chaos as the old order falls apart? Sometime between 540 and 621 seems reasonable. A number of Backyarder and refugee ships left in this period - most were not successful, but some survived.
Rather than slow the ship down to build a new cylinder, you could send an advance party with a fast ship to build it as the generation ship sails past. This would be much more economical on fuel and propellant. You could even cobble the fast ship together from the engines of the generation ship (which aren't being used, after all).
Quote: Interstellar dust and gas will still be a danger to the ship. At 1% of c a piece of gravel striking the ship could be like a small bomb going off on the hull. Remember that 1% of c is still 3000 kilometers per second.On the positive side lumps of gravel are very rare in space. On the down side a ship travelling at 1%c will encounter just as many dustgrains/lumps of gravel as a ship travelling at 10%c, or 90%c, over the same distance - the sip effectively cuts a cylindrical hole through space and intercepts everything in that pathway. On the upside (again) the energy of impact for a ship travelling at 1%c is much less than that at 10%c. A relatively modest impact shield on the forward end should suffice.
Rather than slow the ship down to build a new cylinder, you could send an advance party with a fast ship to build it as the generation ship sails past. This would be much more economical on fuel and propellant. You could even cobble the fast ship together from the engines of the generation ship (which aren't being used, after all).