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The Halo Drive

Cool Worlds · explainer · Watch on YouTube

Cosmology & astrophysicsSpace exploration & spaceflight

What it is

Astrophysicist David Kipping presents the halo drive, a proposed way to propel a starship to a good fraction of light speed by gaining energy from a black hole. The video is based on his peer-reviewed paper and explains why energy is the main obstacle to interstellar flight.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN readers point to it as a clear explanation of a theoretical fuel-free propulsion concept from a channel they respect.

  • 3 people recommended it
  • 3 different months
  • 1 strong recommendations
  • first 2019, last 2023

What HN commenters said

  1. “Prof. Kipping is well known for his Cool Worlds youtube channel, which is fantastic.”

    Kipping explains his Halo Drive idea on his fantastic channel.

    mperham, 2023-01 · Strong recommendation · in “The Halo Drive: Fuel-Free Relativistic Propulsion (2019)”

  2. “The halo drive concept is interesting.”

    Explains fuel-free propulsion via a black hole gravity assist.

    jp555, 2019-06 · Recommendation · in “Ways to travel at nearly the speed of light”

  3. “it's a very nice theoretical concept”

    Theoretical light-based propulsion concept.

    chii, 2021-08 · Recommendation · in “A Dyson sphere around a black hole”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: halo drive, black holes, relativistic travel, spaceflight, astrophysics

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