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.

[–] phdepressed@sh.itjust.works 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.

[–] realitista@lemm.ee 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.

[–] phdepressed@sh.itjust.works 1 points 5 months ago

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