The Mighty Generation Ship Jupiter

"The planet moves."

Inspired by this link in a comment from Gryphon here, I also see the concept in this question.

We've colonized the moons of Jupiter adjusted their orbits to our satisfaction (to avoid them being crisped by the BFR that comes next) & have suitable methods of adjusting them further if Jupiter's mass decreases sufficiently to require it & strapped our mighty rocket (a fusion candle) to Jupiter.

Gravity is our friend & as long as we don't accelerate too fast the moons will remain in orbit.

Now it's time to light the fuse.

My Question: how many light-years of fuel do we actually have in Jupiter, how far can we travel?

• Using best guess approximations (if you can find any) of this theoretical engines fuel efficiency.
• The fusion candle serves as a proxy sun so assuming we do want to stop somewhere we have constant acceleration to the mid-point followed by constant deceleration to journeys end, there will be no coasting with the engines off.
• Consider the problem of keeping the moons in orbit as you burn away most of Jupiter's mass into energy a problem for another day.

posted almost 6 years ago

Pelinore‭

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