For every ship that passes through the Santa Barbara Channel at or below the reduced speed of 12knots, the company that owns the ship will be paid $2,500.

But he soon realized that the stray atoms of hydrogen gas would actually go right through the ship traveling close to light speed, and irradiate both crew and electronics in the process.

The ship would have to be big enough to carry a huge amount of fuel, enough to accelerate it to nearly the speed of light.