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Re: starship-design: Collision sails and various things
Steve VanDevender wrote:
>
> kyle writes:
> > > > 3. Field drives: To alter space in a way providing propulsive force
> > > > (falling into your gravity well, etc.)
> > >
> > > Huh?
> >
> > Like rolling a barrel down a valley, but continually creating the valley
> > in front of your ship. Doesn't need negative matter! (a good thing)
>
> Violates several conservation laws and is pretty close in concept to the
> perpetual motion machine. A bad thing.
It needs energy to create this distortion. If that violates
conservation, then the electric motor industry is in big trouble...
>
> > > > 4. EM drives: distort gravity via electromagnetism. (ZPF is an
> > > > electromagnetic phenomena).
> > >
> > > Gravity is not an electromagneetic phenomenon, so far as anyone
> > > understands it currently.
> >
> > Not Gravity, ZPF. ZPF is affected by electromagnetism, and gravity in
> > turn by ZPF. Gravity can't be directly altered by magnetism. (at least
> > we don't think it can).
>
> There is some interesting speculation on inertia being an interaction
> with the vacuum, but it is untested and there are no obvious
> applications that were presented along with the speculation.
>
> > > > 5. ????ideas anyone????
> > >
> > > I'm willing to consider new ideas, but let's not rehash all these
> > > speculative ideas that we seem to agree are just too new and unproven to
> > > be useful in an engineering context.
> >
> > But we can at least consider them, and create basic ideas of them. If we
> > don't, we'll probably stay stuck on matter/energy problems forever.
> > Besides, if we don't work on such ideas, they will never come to pass.
>
> Then I suggest that this is not the forum for working on them. I see
> this as an engineering forum, not a speculative science forum. We work
> on matter/energy problems because they are fundamental to interstellar
> propulsion, and I expect them to remain so. Even the speculative ideas
> will likely involve energy and fueling problems, should they pass from
> speculation to fact.
Where do you suggest I go? There are no places to discuss that. If no
one does, we'll never know.