Louis Crane has come up with an idea for an interstellar drive: black-hole powered spaceships, fueled by singularities made in robot-run solar power laser factories hovering just over the sun.  It's fantastic science fiction, but unfortunately some seem to have forgotten the second word in that phrase.

The starship proposed might as well be called Enterprise.  Imagination is incredibly important in all areas of science, driving us to discover and derive understandings beyond our own, but that's not an excuse to stick on a few equations and call it actual science.  The Crane concoction is another unfortunate example of someone waving their hands over a bunch of real equations, shouting "in the future!" and claiming responsibility for actually doing work.

Which we wouldn't even mind, except the paper and its proponents trash other options to make keeping a black hole in the boot look more attractive.  A New Scientist article rubbishes solar sails and antimatter by saying "these ambitious schemes have their shortcomings and it is doubtful they could really go the distance," and in the very next sentence puts forward dark matter and portable black holes instead.  You know, practical options.  Instead of solar sails (which have already been shown to work on some scale) or a fuel which by its very nature would be the most efficient fuel possible.

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