Re: starship-design: Tugs

[KellySt@aol.com]

In a message dated 7/31/97 8:42:55 PM, TLG.van.der.Linden@tip.nl (Timothy van
der Linden) wrote:

>Kelly,
>
>>>>>The strech is provided by the beam and sail themselves. If the beam hits
>>>>>the sail under an angle, it will push the sail aside. Just like a
parachute
>>>>>will be blown open and not flap or wrinkle in the middle.
>>>>>The only places that may wrinkle are the outsides.
>>>>
>>>>That would only work if the sail is anchored to something by cables.
>>>> Otherwise its effectivly a sheet of paper blown in the wind (or a domed
>>>>shaped peice of paper if you prefer.).
>>>
>>>I figured the sail always had to be anchored by cables...
>>
>>Anchored to what?  Unless the anchor weighs enough it can't 'anchor' the
>>sail.  In the case of fuel/sail, the sail is 400 times heavier.
>
>Anchored to the ship. The ship doesn't need to be heavier, it just should
>want to accelerate less than the sail, which it does as soon as you cut the
>cables.

But the ship is (in my Fuel/Sail idea) 1/400th the weight of the sail.  So
the ships weight is probably not enough to stablize the sail.

>>>True, but then the small sails should be able to accelerate faster than
the
>>>mothership. This is not necessary a problem, since they likely don't have
as
>>>much payload per sail-area.
>>
>>Not if they had the same cargo weight per sail area. 
>
>?? Didn't I just say that...

Err...true.  Sorry.  Been out of it lately.  Worried about the dog.

>Tim


Kelly