Could constructing a spacecraft from ice have enough integraty and would the ice be enough to sheild the crew from iterstella radiation?
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answers:
The Grim Reaper say: No.
It will also not likely survive for long in space at all, as it will slowly evaporate until it explodes from the internal air pressure you humans need to stay alive.
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digquickly say: Ah!, ..., great question! Aurther C. Clark described a very similar kind of shield in his book, "Songs of Distant Earth". It is plausible but the technology to do it is not here yet.
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bubby say: Fire up the engines and you will not have a spacecraft or crew to worry about radiation.
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Ronald 7 say: Why not ?
Ice is actually a great unsulator
And you have a ready water supply for drinking or even fuel
The outer Solar system is teeming with ice
On Earth, we have Ice Hotels and Ice Bars etc.
Want ice with that ??
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nineteenthly say: Yes.
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Paula say: Yes and No.
Yes ice would absorb some radiation.
No - it would merely be a layer on the surface of the spacecraft and probably covered by another layer.
Ice is plentiful in the solar system. So it would not be difficult to get some - comets, moons of outer planets.
Plus water is useful for drinking.
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Starrysky say: Combined with other materials or inside a thin shell, should be fine.
In WW2, the British were going to build an aircraft carrier in the Atlantic out of ice and hay. Did some smaller craft as experiments.
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az_lender say: How do you shield the ice from the heat of the interior?
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Professor H say: It is a thought but there are certainly more practical ways
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billrussell42 say: NO. Ice is too brittle and has little structural strength. And it will melt.
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CarolOklaNola say: No. Ice doesn't have the tensile strength, strain resistance or stress capacity not to fracture, shatter is why
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Nyx say: It's possible. One of the concepts for shielding a interstellar craft that's traveling at low relativistic speeds, is to place a thick wall of ice in front of the craft.
That way, most of the tiny stuff (under a meter) would just chip away at the ice, not the craft. the bigger stuff, might still be problematic.
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PhotonX say: For an interstellar journey it might be possible to harness a small comet and convert it to living space while ejecting it from the Solar System, since melting ice isn't an issue in interstellar space, but obviously such a plan is so far in the future that it's purely the stuff of science fiction. How such a craft would be power life support systems is one of the main problems of interstellar travel beyond what the craft is made of.
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Speaking of science fiction, if you haven't already read it I'm confident you'd be interested in reading The Heart of the Comet, a scifi novel by David Brin and Gregory Benford, which envisions a comet-based civilization. Your local library may have a copy.
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Henry say: Ice melts. Good thing space is fake and earth is flat.
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