Re: starship-design: Engine Parameters

["Kyle R. Mcallister" <stk@sunherald.infi.net>]

N. Lindberg wrote:
> 
> Lee,
>         here are some comments on your low/medium/high categories.
> An acceleration of 90 m/ss for your high engine performance is
> impractical.  This is for the simple reason that this equals about nine
> gee's.  Even if an engine could be made to do this, no human frame can
> take that much acceleration for more than a few minutes (here I assume we
> continue with the idea of manned missions, even an unmanned vessel's
> electronics would have to be special built to take the strain).
> Military pilots wearing g-suits are limited to 9.5 gees for a few
> seconds.

I've been thinking about this, and the diamagnetic leviation experiments
(the floating frog). I wonder, might it be possible to apply this to a
starship to lessen the acceleration stresses on a human body? Then
again, the high magnetic fields would probably be dangerous...any
thoughts on this one?

Kyle R. Mcallister