Re: MARS

[T.L.G.vanderLinden@student.utwente.nl (Timothy van der Linden)]

>> Eh, Kevin why do you think that micro waves are called MICRO waves? Assuming
>> you see what I mean, I think that you agree that such big holes are not
allowed.
>
>Ah, Tim, i was asusuming that a good frequency for the maser would be 
>21cm.  as the ship approached earth on it's return flight, it would have 
>a gamma of about seven, so the wavelength would be reduced by seven times 
>to about 3 cm.  All other portions of the trip would have longer wave- 
>lengths, or at least, no significant change.  I always assumed that they 
>were called _micro_ waves, because compared to radio waves (which can be 
>in the 1 meter range), 21 cm seems very small indeed.

Damn, you are right (almost). I checked a dictionary and it says microwaves
is EM-radiation with wavelengths between 1 cm and 1 mm.

>Microwaves have longer frequencies than IR, and i know that IR is about 
>1 cm or shorter.

You are almost right again, <1 mm.

I'm sorry for my wrong correction. So indeed a reflecting mesh could have
holes with a size of about a centimetre.


Timothy