Assorted sucrose-based lifeforms wrote:Hakio wrote:"...I don't think so. Hey could you get our physicist on the phone? ... Yeah I need a translation. Dammit man, get him on the phone I'm a politician not an astrophysicist!"
Confused WA Ambassador
~Sia Hedishi
Now, if we don't have faster than light travel, then the next fastest way to travel is by accelerating the equipment or vessels to a fraction of the speed of light with, effectively, a large rail gun (or mass accelerator).
Now if you have something big and heavy like a ship travelling at a fraction of the speed of light, it's going to have quite a bit of kinetic energy.
This means that the primary mode of transporting anything about the galaxy (until wormhole travel is achieved) could easily be used to obliterate a planet.
Due to the capability of these mass accelerators to be used as weapons, would they still fall under the jurisdiction of the planetary annihilation law, even if their primary purpose is purely transport?
"Well, then you may need to simply start the process without a planet behind of you. If it does accidentally happen, well, it wasn't intentional and thus would not be prohibited, I do suppose. Further safety regulations on space vessels are needed to properly address this problem."