starship-design: A few thoughts on drag & exoitc stuff(was 'still doing stardrives')

["N. Lindberg" <nlindber@u.washington.edu>]

	One of the candidates for the 'dark matter' that accounts for 90%
of our universe and our galaxy is a low-rest mass particle called the
axion.  This is one of those wierd things that are predicted by SUSY and
superstring theories.  It has the interesting property that it decays into
photons in the presence of a strong magnetic field.  Of course, if they
exist in large quantity in interstellar space, the magnetic field from any
Bussard scoop would cause their decay.  At low speeds (relative to the
galactic DM halo) the microwaves produced wouldn't be a big deal, but at
high speed they could produce enourmous effects.  I have no idea whether
this would produce drag, thrust, or a force normal to the path.
	Best Regards,
	Nels Lindberg

On Tue, 9 Feb 1999, L. Clayton Parker wrote:

> 
> 
> > > I used a Broussard ramscoop to supplement onboard
> > > fuel, so your discouraging asessment of the prospects
> > > of this technology will need further checking.
> 
> The last paper I saw published on the ISM gives a density of 0.05 for the
> local area out to about 150 ly and 0.001 after that. The average for the
> galaxy however, is closer to 10.0. The reason for the low local density was
> given as old supernova events in the local area.
> 
> Which brings up a couple of questions, how long ago were these supernovas
> and where were they?
> 
> Lee Parker
> 
>