Rob makes the argument that NO ship would be able to handle a crash and
survive, no matter WHAT the inertial compensators can do.
I agree totally.
But when impact is at relatively low speeds, survival is possible. If the
ship hits an object and is allowed say to decelerate over a period of one
second, then collisions of less than 300 kph are survivable. If we allow
say the inertial compensators to put out an extreme burst, say compensating
for 25G's then you can allow up to 900kph collisions and survive.
Actually, decelerations are going to be over microseconds, thus Rob is correct
when he says collisions range in the 100s to 1000s of Gs. But to my mind the
paltry few G's of compensation could amount to a 'Five mile an hour bumper'.
For very small collisions it might save a few lives. In a head on collision
you'll be dead no matter what you do.
Scott