Editing Antimatter rocket (section)

===Other general issues===

The cosmic background [[hard radiation]] will ionize the rocket's hull over time and poses a [[Health threat from cosmic rays|health threat]]. Also, gas plasma interactions may cause [[space charge]]. The major interaction of concern is differential charging of various parts of a spacecraft, leading to high electric fields and arcing between spacecraft components. This can be resolved with well placed [[plasma contactor]]. However, there is no solution yet for when plasma contactors are turned off to allow maintenance work on the hull. Long term space flight at interstellar velocities causes erosion of the rocket's hull due to collision with particles, [[Interstellar medium|gas]], [[Cosmic dust|dust]] and [[micrometeorite]]s. At 0.2<math>c</math> for a 6 light year distance, erosion is estimated to be in the order of about 30&nbsp;kg/m<sup>2</sup> or about 1&nbsp;cm of aluminum shielding.<ref name=NASA20110406>[https://web.archive.org/web/20110621012238/http://science1.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2001/ast13nov_1sidebar/ ''Space Charge''] NASA science news, April 6, 2011</ref><ref name=HGarrett>[http://www.kiss.caltech.edu/workshops/systems2012/presentations/garrett.pdf ''There and Back Again: A Layman's Guide to Ultra-Reliability for Interstellar Missions''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140508062130/http://www.kiss.caltech.edu/workshops/systems2012/presentations/garrett.pdf |date=2014-05-08 }} Henry Garrett, 30 July 2012</ref>