starship-design: Re: Solarfm

[Kelly St <KellySt@aol.com>]

In a message dated 12/23/97 12:47:41 PM, you wrote:

>GREAT!! I am very glad to hear this. I always thought I had to wait another
15
>years before I started working on this stuff!!!!
>
>O.K., just another little comment.. You know how a piece of matter, just a
meator
>the sise of a ball point of a pen could bring major dammage to the space
shuttle.
>well, traveling at 30% the speed of light, especially with a fusion reacter,
just
>a small fragment could destroy the entire ship if it hit in the right place.
How
>do you avoid this?
>
>Solarfm

A piece of dust could go off like a bomb.  

By throwing a cloud of dust ahead of the ship, it would plow throughvolume of
space ahead of the ship and blast it clean.  You'ld have to keep restocking
the dust, but it would clean a path for the ship.  Past that, you try to keep
important stuff away from the frount of the ship.  Generally the slug of fuel
is stowed up there.

Kelly