In reply to Jones Beene's message of Thu, 8 Oct 2020 15:25:39 +0000 (UTC): Hi, [snip] > Looks like your angle is radiative cooling.
At the melting point of Titanium it will radiate about 80 W/cm^2, compared to the calculated 500 kW/cm^2 kinetic energy. > >Plus, speaking of angles - the full kinetic energy of the particles would not >be transferred to the titanium. 1) A bow-wave may form that partially protects the hull, though the tip would still be problematic. 2) An extremely long pointed prow would have a much larger surface area than its cross section, making it possible to more equally balance the incoming and outgoing power, which would also make more particles bounce off. 3) As Harry says, forced cooling would be needed. 4) If might be possible to ionize the medium first so that it can be deflected by a magnetic field. 5) Interstellar gas is not the only problem. A grain of sand or a pebble would spell disaster.
