How to defend against bad drivers and alien threats in a slower than light transportation scenario

You don't need to be traveling faster than the speed of light to encounter some pretty major problems.

At just 30% the speed of light (90 Mm/s) a spaceship of mass 4 x 10^5 kg (about the mass of the ISS) colliding with a planet would impart 1.736 x 10^21 Joules of energy (Zettajoules) accounting for relativistic kinetic energy.

That's a lot of energy, approximately the same as a 1km asteroid colliding with earth or the total energy of a large hurricane (although the second one doesn't sound as impressive). That's a 20km (diameter) crater!

Actually, this isn't really that bad. The effects would at best be regional, although it could be devastating for a city if the impact was aimed well. However, 0.3c isn't very practical for transportation. What happens at 0.7c?

With a craft of the same mass (still rather impractical, but maybe it's more of a one-seater), an impact would release 1.439 x 10^22 Joules, the equivalent of 3 teratons of TNT. In case you're wondering, this much energy would easily destroy any Earth-sized planet.

So the question is, how does a planet defend against such a threat? In a developed civilization, crafts traveling at such speed would likely become a normal form of transportation, at least within solar systems. Even undeveloped planets are at risk from malicious alien simulations. And considering how much damage drunk drivers do in cars traveling less than 100 mph, imagine how bad of a problem drunk flyers could be.

Possible solutions:

1. An interplanetary tracking network and a system of lasers designed to shoot down problem ships.

2. Complete automation of spaceflight. You punch everything into a computer, it takes you there. No manual flying option available. However, this doesn't defend against malicious attacks.

3. Strict licensing and regulation would cut down on dangerous drivers, but there is still such a huge risk of mistakes with catastrophic consequences.

4. Some sort of force-field that absorbs the energy from these impacts. This seems like the most practical but most advanced solution.

What other options are there? I'm looking for realistic solutions, as the premise of this question is realistic (no FTL). Also, feel free to critique or modify the four that I proposed.

posted almost 7 years ago

Nathaniel D. Hoffman‭

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