I always thought the big block of ice on the front of the starship in Clarke's "Songs of Distant Earth" was a more elegant solution.
from radiation, maybe. but for impact protection at relativistic speeds the column of ice could end up needing to be more than a kilometer long..
Quote from: Stormbringer on 04/24/2017 02:25 pmfrom radiation, maybe. but for impact protection at relativistic speeds the column of ice could end up needing to be more than a kilometer long..It was. Clarke always did his homework.