Re: starship-design: Timothy's beamed power paper

[KellySt@aol.com]

In a message dated 7/24/97 9:05:55 AM, TLG.van.der.Linden@tip.nl (Timothy van
der Linden) wrote:

>Kelly wrote:
>
>>>My best guess is to use a parashute-model and shield the relative small
>>>payload.
>>
>>One alternative is to have fleets of little tugs sheparding the sail into
>>shape.  Not very eligant, but an option worth consideration.
>
>You've to elaborate about this, so far I don't see where this differs from a
>parachute.
>
>Timothy

With the chute, the sail is held in place by tension with and between the
cables.  If you add tugs.  The little ships can move out to push or pull on
spots of the sail that start to flap or wrinkle.  Also could twist the sail
for steering.

For my fuel/sail idea this is especially interesting, since the ship would
weigh less then 0.25% of the total weight.  Being that light, it couldn't
exercise enough damping to stablize a sail thousands of miles across.

Kelly