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Re: starship-design: Tugs




In a message dated 7/27/97 2:17:31 PM, TLG.van.der.Linden@tip.nl (Timothy van
der Linden) wrote:

>Kelly,
>
>You apparently did sent this reply only to me...

Opps.  Sorry.


>>The beam will have some variation over its size, and the interstellar
medium
>>will have some varioation differences, or charge differences.  Its
gareenteed
>>that thinks won't be perfectly balenced in a system this big.
>
>Agreed.
>
>>>Oh wait, wrinkling is likely not an issue, since we will make the sail so
>>>that there is a slighly outward pressure that keeps the sail streched.
Only
>>>very big (catastrophic) uneven beampressures will then wrinkle the sail.
>>
>>That extrenal streach might be very hard for a fuel/sail ship to do since
the
>>ship is such a trivial % of the weight or load on the sail.
>
>The strech is provided by the beam and sail themselves. If the beam hits the
>sail under an angle, it will push the sail aside. Just like a parachute will
>be blown open and not flap or wrinkle in the middle.
>The only places that may wrinkle are the outsides.

That would only work if the sail is anchored to something by cables.
 Otherwise its effectivly a sheet of paper blown in the wind (or a domed
shaped peice of paper if you prefer.).


>>>I wonder what the concequences of such high uneven beampressures will do.
>>>If only we could make parts of the sail transparent at will...
>>
>>You could fly a bunch of other sail ships around it.  They could move in to
>>'shadow' part of the larger main sail if needed.
>
>Doesn't sound good. Accelerating more than one sail is hard enough.

One sails loss is anothyers gain.  Remember the mini sails could be only a
few miles across.  Tiny compared to the monster sail.  Their plenty of extra
power in the beam beyond the sails edges.  Hundreds of thousands of miles to
cruse around in.


>Timothy


Kelly