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Re: Optimum Interstellar Rockets
- To: T.L.G.vanderLinden@student.utwente.nl, kgstar@most.fw.hac.com, stevev@efn.org, jim@bogie2.bio.purdue.edu, KellySt@aol.com, zkulpa@zmit1.ippt.gov.pl, hous0042@maroon.tc.umn.edu, rddesign@wolfenet.com, David@interworld.com, lparker@destin.gulfnet.com
- Subject: Re: Optimum Interstellar Rockets
- From: DotarSojat@aol.com
- Date: Fri, 5 Apr 1996 16:30:33 -0500
At 2:06 PM 4/4/96, Kelly Starks wrote:
>Other than complexity, would adjusting the exaust vel for opt-
>imum at ships current vel (I.E. as the ships speed increases.
>Changing the exaust velocity for the optimum for that speed)
>buy us anything?
You decide. (It would probably require a sophisticated math-
ematical technique called "the calculus of variations" to tell
us exactly how much such an optimum exhaust-velocity program
would buy us.)
Suppose we could find an exhaust-velocity profile that could
raise the kinetic-energy efficiency to 100 percent. Would mul-
tiplying all the minimum-antimatter ratios by 0.6+ (the maximum
kinetic-energy efficiency for constant exhaust velocity) signif-
icantly change the implications of the numbers in the table?
The ratios already seem surprisingly small.
Regards, Rex