(urth) Short Sun blog review

[Dan'l Danehy-Oakes]

On Tue, Sep 21, 2010 at 10:08 AM, Gwern Branwen <gwern0 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Notice that to get a slowdown of even 1/3, you need to get up to
> somewhere around 0.97 or 0.98 _c_. Given that we're talking an entire
> hollowed-out asteroid, and one which needs to slow down to rest at the
> end... Well, the energy requirements would be absolutely fantastic.
> (And I mean fantastic as in, you'd better have an entire other
> anti-asteroid made of anti-matter for propellant.)
>
> Dunno if Wolfe took all this into account, though.

Nor do I. However, this is assuming that the energy sources available
to Typhon are limited to those we know and love in the 21st Century.
The Whorl may be powered by zero point energy or even the infamous
handwaving drive.

-- 
Dan'l Danehy-Oakes