starship-design: What is safest?

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

Kelly,

>>The more derived they are, the more complicated they get. Are Orion or any
>>of its current derivatives usable to get us towards several tenths of c?
>>Still the firing rates for these engines are quite low. If they don't rattle
>>the ship to pieces, they are likely going to make the crew very sick.
>
>The pulse fusion systems generally work at a couple hundred cycles per
>secound.  Magnetic/electrostatic confinment systems are more steedy flow.

At a site that Lee reported some time ago they talk about 1 Hertz:
http://antimatter.phys.psu.edu/ICAN-II_Paper/ICAN-II_Features.html#thrustAndIsp

My guess is that the pulsed fusion system you mention are even more
sophisticated. (If not, (hyper) links are appreaciated.)

Tim