Re: starship-design: Collision sails and various things

[kyle <stk@sunherald.infi.net>]

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.