Sure, but unless you’re quite close to it and have the surface area of a planet, you’re not going to be catching a lot of that solar radiation. Some of the outer planets of our own solar system are very large, and very frozen, and unless you’re that big or bigger and that close or closer, so are you.
There’s an awful lot of space in between stars as well. So if you’re traveling anywhere, you’re spending a lot of time outside of ~10 AU from the nearest star. Solar radiation doesn’t play a big part out there.
i mean the main problem for most spacecraft, even unmanned ones, is cooling. not because of internal heat generation, but because there’s nothing blocking solar radiation from hitting them and nothing around them to convect that heat away.
Hm. Maybe you’re right then. I am both not an astrophysicist and am a bit stoned so I’m definitely willing to admit arguments here. I thought internal heat generation was the problem they were cooling far more than solar radiation but I could definitely be wrong.
On a Sci-Fi Star Wars spaceship though I think the internal heating is definitely going to be the bigger factor.
i mean there are stars around…
Sure, but unless you’re quite close to it and have the surface area of a planet, you’re not going to be catching a lot of that solar radiation. Some of the outer planets of our own solar system are very large, and very frozen, and unless you’re that big or bigger and that close or closer, so are you.
There’s an awful lot of space in between stars as well. So if you’re traveling anywhere, you’re spending a lot of time outside of ~10 AU from the nearest star. Solar radiation doesn’t play a big part out there.
i mean the main problem for most spacecraft, even unmanned ones, is cooling. not because of internal heat generation, but because there’s nothing blocking solar radiation from hitting them and nothing around them to convect that heat away.
Hm. Maybe you’re right then. I am both not an astrophysicist and am a bit stoned so I’m definitely willing to admit arguments here. I thought internal heat generation was the problem they were cooling far more than solar radiation but I could definitely be wrong.
On a Sci-Fi Star Wars spaceship though I think the internal heating is definitely going to be the bigger factor.
probably! especially on the super-shiny kind they use in that movie.