Re: RE: starship-design: RE: Perihelion Maneuver

[Kelly St <KellySt@aol.com>]

In a message dated 12/9/97 1:16:50 AM, lparker@cacaphony.net wrote:

>On Monday, December 08, 1997 1:08 PM, Ken Wharton 
>[SMTP:wharton@physics.ucla.edu] wrote:
>
>> Are there any ideas out there as to how to transfer raw fusion energy to
>> propellent more efficiently??  One possibility would be to use the fusion
>>
>> products themselves as propellant, but for this scheme that merely
>> increases
>> the amount of antimatter you need by three orders of magnitude; no easy
>> feat
>> when it's already more than we can make.  I think someone calculated that
>>
>> the ideal propellant speed is about 0.1c.  Has anyone looked into how to
>> make this type of engine, assuming fusion is possible?
>
>There are some promising developments in magnetic nozzle design that might 
>be combined with this fusion concept to at least increase the ISP another 
>order of magnitude. As for the propellant, well, I didn't say the idea was 
>perfect...just possible.
>
>Lee


  !!!!!????  Woah!   Lee you've been holding out on us!  Please diecribe this
Nozzel?  If it would work on fusion products from the motors I'm talking
about, a order of magnitude improvement would dramatically improve the
systems!  Probably droping fuel ratios by far more then an order of magnitude.

Kelly