Sail numbers

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

To Kevin,

>1) the sail is the heaviest part of the ship.  Even at 50 g/m^2, and 100 
>Km in radius, the sail alone approaches my original MARS design (now a 
>smoking ruin ;( )

Hmmm, this is indeed fascinating (as mr. Spock says). I guess, I never
really thought of it before. (Although 5E5 kg for the ship seems a little
bit too small.)

>3) Stress is miniscule  I don't where you guys have been getitng your 
>stress numbers, but they are out of whack.

I'm not sure how I did it either.

>5) Thermal load is a big problem.  750 KW on .05 Kg is a big worry.
>I have not calculated the limiting temperature yet, but I am hopeful that 
>titanium alloy will stand up to the load.  To do this model, I will use 
>heat capacity and blackbody radiation equation.  I do not have time right 
>now, but expect it soon.

Hmmm, this sounds troublesome, maybe we need to decrease the density of the
beam.
If you've calculated it could you add some formulas so that I can check it?


Timothy