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Re: Re: Summary
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From: KellySt
To: T.L.G.vanderLinden; stevev; jim; zkulpa; hous0042; rddesign; David;
bmansur
Subject: Re: Re: Summary
Date: Wednesday, February 14, 1996 10:56PM
> To Kelly,
>
> >I wasn't assuming we would be using a propulsion beam, much less build
one
in
> >the target systems. You've pretty wel convinced me that, that isn't
> >practical.
>
> Oh yes, it was Kevin who wants to use it. But you do use it in the next
> part, or is that only for a relative short acceleration period?
>Next part? I list all of them in the summary, but don't assume any of them
>will be used. My designs only use fusion drives and fuel launchers.
Interjecting an idea here: isn't our ion rocket basically a superpowerful
ion accelerator already? If so, why don't we leave it at Tau Ceti and have
it fire a relativistic particle beam at a magnetic sail attached to our
ship. The way we've been talking, the ion rocket should be powerful enough
to do the job. We just need to park it on a heavy but slow moving Kupier
object. Earth can slow us using the same system.
For some reason, I don't think its that easy ;(
On the other hand, powering shouldn't be such a problem if we bring or build
a maser array and let Earth beam power. ( did I just repeat something from
a weeks old response to this letter?). Of course, if we can get that to
happen, why not just use the maser array to directly power the accelerator
as a rocket as Kevin wanted to do in the first place? On the other hand
again, using this system, we don't have to worry about the engineering
aspects of buiding a microwave antenna that can withstand the radiation/dust
wear and tear of relativistic flight not to mention the g-force stresses. A
mag-sail should be easier since it is just a bundle of superconductive wires
that we could recycle and reweave into a sail.
I'm going to shut up for a while now.
Brian