How to catch a bullet... Shielding.
When you first learn that your can actually move a spaceship to obtain a velocity a fraction of the speed of light, you get real excited. Well, I did anyway. I realized that Closed Loop Pulse Propulsion was going to bring us into the Star Trek generation in a very real way. CLPP is the impulse drive they were talking about... Fucking Roddenberry... who the hell was that guy? Right? Anyway, the first thing you realize is your ship is going to be traveling very, very fast. Then the second thing you realize... if you hit something, you are fucked. It's one thing to watch that shit on TV. But to contemplate hitting a small rock at a small fraction of the speed of light and figuring out how you don't explode is rather distressing. See, when you hit that tiny rock, the explosive impact is worse than all the nuclear bombs detonating at once. To say that may sting a bit is an understatement. I honestly don't see how our cur...