Re: starship-design: Blackhole, Railgun and superconductor

[TLG.van.der.Linden@tip.nl (Timothy van der Linden)]

Hello Isaac,

>>Like Kelly mentioned, these velocities of 0.00001c are not near to what we
>>like. Especially not near to the velocities we need for the deceleration
track.
>>I'm afraid that you/we need to work hard on the pellet beaming part.
>
>I already mentionned in another reply what the deal with the muzzle
>velocities was.
>
>Anyway, the thing which makes current fusion pellet research applicable
>is that it precisely addresses the problem of accelerating a frozen
>hydrogen pellet with a puff of hot plasma in a railgun.  That's the
>sort of thing which on the face of it sounds dubious.

That's for sure, but since I had no data about it, I didn't want to address it.

>>>Yes, but since the magnetic field they are resisting is only momentary,
>>>so is the opposing electric current.  It doesn't build up.
>
>>Momentarily? Having a pulsed engine doesn't change things. Instead of
>>increasing constantly, the current in the superconductor will increase with
>>steps.
>>If it has nothing to do with a pulsed engine, then you have to explain to me
>>why it is momentarily.
>
>It is momentary because the magnetic field generated by any bit of
>plasma goes away once that plasma goes away.  It doesn't have
>anything to do with it being pulsed or not.

I think I see where I made the mistake: I assumed that the total magnetic
flux of the leaving plasma was more than that of the approaching plasma.
After having thought about it a while, I see this isn't the case.
Sorry to have troubled you.

Timothy