Re: Orbit B

[Kevin C Houston <hous0042@maroon.tc.umn.edu>]

Tim:
> >                          ~A  <======================                R
> >
> >Stage five: Asimov uses the decell beam to slow down to Target star.
> 
> I'm sorry when you were talking about a asteroid, I was thinking you meant a
> 1 kilometre one. I'm still wondering if you really need an asteroid, my
> guess is that the mirror itself will be solid enough.

You are right, I should have said a couple of asteroid's worth of mass.  
I think the retro reflector will start out as a thin mesh of wire, and 
some form of mass will then be sprayed on the backside (slag from the 
construction of the mirror/maser/solar cells/asimov) maser tubes would 
then be arrainged along the outside edges ( to give a larger aperature)

If the Retro-Reflector (RR) is much more massive than the asimov, then it 
won't speed up very much during the reflection phase.  Aiming should not 
be too difficult, all the RR will have to do is aim back for Sol ( a 
rather close/bright star)  if the RR has to manuvere, then it can do so 
by either:

1) employing a gyro like I have proposed before (only bigger)

2)varying the output from the different maser tubes arrayed along the 
outside circumfrence.

> You have managed to overcome the problem of a forward and backward moving
> beam in the same lane. But by solving that problem you added another (how
> could it have been different) namely that the distance between mirror and
> our ship has been lengthened by I think at least 4 ly.

yes, it looks that way.  BTW, i don't think we can let the RR crash into 
the target star, if we do, then the decell beam will cut out with 2 
light-years to go (assuming a 4 LY separation)

Kevin