Is there any material today that could withstand the impact of a baseball at 0.05c?

I would like to better understand intragalactic ship design (aka, "spaceships").

• It's travelling at a barely tolerable 0.05c (86 years to Alpha Centauri).

• It happens to impact with a baseball (145 grams). (In reality it would impact with rocks. We believe there's nothing out there other than inconsequential dust, but the reality is we don't know because we can't detect anything this small, so assume I'm right, please.)

• Maximum material thickness: 100 cm.

• For the purposes of this question, whether or not the material will be dented is ignored, so long as it is not pierced or burned away.

I believe the basic equation is Joules = 0.5 * mass(Kg) * velocity(m/s)². In which case, the baseball hit my ship with 16 TJ of energy.

Question Is there a material today that could act as the forward plating of my ship that could withstand such an impact?

posted over 6 years ago

JBH‭

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