Most of space is empty, analysis of the path beforehand and a structure that can withstand the smaller objects is really all that's necessary. But those are just as theoretical as this engine.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (2 children)

Problem is that asteroids are very hard to see, as they are both cold and dark, meaning they don't stand out against space very much at all. And even a micrometeoroid poses a risk even when traveling at low velocities (e.g. someone orbiting earth, the meteoroid itself has a relatively high velocity). Getting hit by a 1cm meteoroid at warp 1 would be devastating.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

Yes, as I said theoretically. If/by the time this heavily theoretical engine comes to fruition there will probably be ways to detect asteroids better than we have now. Also materials/structural design that are better than what we have now for sustaining the smaller hits. Maybe quantum prediction scanning, maybe a forcefield. Who knows by then.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Not an issue if you aren't actually traversing the whole space but rather bending space to get you where you want to go.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

Well, I'll be long dead before we get a Farnsworth drive running off dark matter.