Re: starship-design: Clear view

[kgstar@most.fw.hac.com (Kelly Starks x7066 MS 10-39)]

At 5:26 PM 11/2/96, Timothy van der Linden wrote:
>Kelly replied:
>
>>>>>All in all I would think a frame with lasers and photocells (or whatever)
>>>>>would do the best job, another advantage of frames is that there is
>>>>>hardly a
>>>>>size limit...
>>>>
>>>>Given Rex was talking about arrarys hudreds of thousands of miles across, I
>>>>think a fixed structure is a no-go.
>>>
>>>Why can't it be a fixed frame? I don't see a problem about it.
>>
>>A fixed frame hudreds of thousands of miles across?  Aside from problems of
>>structural strength, and lack of stiffness.  What planet would you convert
>>into the framework?
>
>There are enough asteroids around to get the necessary materials from.
>About lack of stiffness and structural strength, I guess that depends on the
>way the array is constructed.

Its still not practical to try to build a solid structure  the size of a
jovian planet.  It wound be stiff, and will have a lot of trouble with
tidal forces.  Its simpler and cheaper to just have a lose swarm of
syncronized transmitter platforms that wander around as need be.


>Timothy


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Kelly Starks                    Phone: (219) 429-7066    Fax: (219) 429-6859
Sr. Systems Engineer                                     Mail Stop: 10-39
Hughes defense Communications
1010 Production Road, Fort Wayne, IN 46808-4106
Email:  kgstar@most.fw.hac.com
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