Needleships: Real Interstellar Space Vessels
Movie spaceships have a particular look. I’m sure you’re familiar with it. Somewhat patterned after NASA’s near-Earth spacecraft, they’re ungainly, bloated things, and always non-aerodynamic even if they happen to also occasionally enter in the atmosphere (where they nearly always inexplicably float with no visible means of countering gravity). People think that being fat and adorned with protuberances is realistic, because space is empty. So even as TIE Fighters roar noisily through vacuum, they can have gigantic panels without worrying about them flapping in the breeze. Sci-Fi at its sci-finest Ships that will eventually venture outside our solar system will have a much different look. The reason is because space isn’t empty, especially inside a galaxy. The Milky Way’s Interstellar Medium is everywhere. Right now, our sun is traveling through a 60 light year bubble of gas at a speed of about 25 km/second; we can detect this as an interstellar wind of helium hitting the