starship-design: New Member :-)

[Christoph Kulmann <kulmann@uni-bremen.de>]

Hello and greetings to all,

I have just found your starship website and would like to join your
discussion group. May I introduce myself: My name is Christoph and I am a
graduate student of biology at the University of Bremen/Germany, with a
deeply rooted interest in space exploration.

I am particularly impressed by your Explorer class design concept. It
looks like a well-thought and consistent idea. I'm a bit sad not to be on
board...

For the beginning I have a simple question. In your design overview for a
fusion powered ship you give the fuel to mass ratios for different speeds
and specific impulses. Certainly the mass of the fuel and the still
relatively "low" speed imposes a heavy burden on the project.
Just for curiosity: If you suppose a speed of 0.5 c and a specific impulse
of 2,500,000 sec (25,000,000 m/s), what would be the fuel to mass ratio
required? Or from the other way, for a speed of 0.5 c, what specific
impulse would be required to keep the fuel to mass ratio below 50:1?
I don't have the formula at hand, but maybe one of you could give a quick
answer...:-)

That's all for now. I look forward to hear from you...
Christoph Kulmann

 ___kulmann@uni-bremen.de_______________________________
|                                                       |
| As the rooster said to the hens when he showed them   |
| an ostrich egg:                                       |
|"I am not criticising; I am not disparaging;           |
| I am just pointing out what is being done elsewhere." |
|_______________________________________________________|