I agree, it's an absolutely beautiful, even practically built ship, but don't get too excited. According to the movie, it was also a matter-antimatter propulsion powered ship that could travel at ~0.7 the speed of light. The amount of energy required to get a massed object up to that speed could probably crack the Earth in half if it were to detonate all at once, so we have a ways to go before we can reach the Alpha Centauri system in 6 years like this ship can. Still, definitely one of my favorite designs!.
Wasn't sure if it was MAM or fusion, I just knew it was a conventional nuclear thermal reaction mass rocket engine and not something exotic like warp.
Also yeah accelerating something that massive to .7c with a photon sail is crazy enough. The sail is supposed to be like 1 atom thick and 16 kilometers diameter or something. That boom sticking out past the engines is where the sail attaches, but it's never shown.
Engines are only used for arrival decel and departure accel. Earth departure and arrival is supposed to be entirely photon sail.
Assuming constant acceleration and not coast the engines would have to have enough fuel to burn continuously for 6 years (3 yrs each direction)
Pretty sure it accelerates then coasts unpowered for the majority of the trip. I read it starts decel burn a few months before arrival?
So what's more impressive and unrealistic, 6 years worth of fuel for constant acceleration, or being able to accelerate to and from .7c in a couple weeks/months? Heh.
Should be more clear, I didn't mean we could actually build it, just that 99% of the technology is feasible with current known science (no warp drive, etc). We know nothing about gravity, warp, etc, but we could theoretically build lenses/satellites to create "sun lasers" provided enough time and material.
http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/realdesigns.php