Re: RE: RE: starship-design: Hull Materials

[KellySt@aol.com]

In a message dated 11/13/97 8:16:41 AM, lparker@cacaphony.net wrote:

>On Wednesday, November 12, 1997 11:01 PM, KellySt@aol.com 
>[SMTP:KellySt@aol.com] wrote:
>
>
>> Oh, did I mention the dust shield idea?  You dump a cloud of fine dust or
>> gas
>> ahead of you.  The debres slams into it and vaporizes, or at least
>> ionizes.
>>  The resulting plasma is fairly easy to steer magnetically.
>>
>> Kelly
>
>Except how do we get the dust cloud to acclerate along with the ship? I 
>suppose some sort of mhd field surrounding the ship would not only deflect 
>particles but could be made to trap and hold some as well.
>
>Lee


That, or you fire it out ahead of you at higher speed then you intend to go.
 As long as the ship stays in its wake (and it doesn't disperse to much) you
don't have a problem.  Besides you don't accelerate for very long compared to
the long cruse between.

Kelly