How fast did Dr Ryland Grace travel in the Hail Mary Project?

  • Thread starter Twinduck
  • Start date
  • Tags
    Space
In summary, Dr. Ryland Grace, in the Hail Mary Project, traveled at a speed of approximately 0.1 times the speed of light, allowing him to reach the distant star system of Tau Ceti in a relatively short time frame for his mission to save Earth from an impending extinction event.
  • #1
Twinduck
11
3
For those of you who haven't read the book, it is a science fiction story in which a man named Dr Ryland Grace travels to Tau Ceti. The star is approximately 12 light years from Earth, and he got there in about 13 years, which for him was a 3 year journey. He is accelerating at 1,5g constantly for half the journey, then decelerating at 1.5g for the other half.

What percentage of the speed of light would he reach after accelerating at 1.5g for 6 and a half years?
 
Physics news on Phys.org
  • #2
What do you think and why? Googling for “relativistic acceleration” will find some useful formulas.
 

Similar threads

Replies
22
Views
4K
Replies
7
Views
7K
Replies
42
Views
8K
3
Replies
96
Views
8K
Replies
2
Views
2K
Back
Top