Re: Re: starship-design: FTL and other drives.

[KellySt@aol.com]

From:  bfranchuk@jetnet.ab.ca

>>KellySt@aol.com wrote:
>> 
>======
> > b) FTL travel
> >    2 to 5 x speed of light.
> >    have to drop out of warp to navigate and or
> >    to prevent heat build up.
> 
> We have very rough theories about FTL.  NOne of your details are even hinted
> in them.
>
>   I have not read any ftl theories but they seem resonable 
> limits,since they are out side out universe you can't go 
> far with out getting lost or stressing you engines. More 
> theory needed.

It sounds plausible, but its just as likely to be silly.  Maybe FTL doesn't
involve leaving the universe, or perhaps all the drive stress is in starting
and stoping, and cruseing the engines are off.

>====
>> > d) Fussion reactor
>> >    3/4 to 1/10C
>> 
>> I think I pulled about every trick you could with fussion.  
>>NO way your geting  to .75 unless you have STAGERING 
>>fuel ratios.  .2 needs fuel reserves tens to
>> a hundred times that of the unfuel ship.  (To get to .4 C 
>>I added external fueling or microwave sail.

>   Ok, My ball park figure was off. Does 1/3C to 1/12C 
> sound right for ball park figures. For 5 light years, 
> 15 to 60 years oneway.

Better, thou you need a faster ship to make going worth doing, and a slower
ship could be far more difficult and unrelyable then a faster ship.
 
>> > e) Fussion reactor with
>> >          basard ramjet 3/4 to 1/10C
>> 
>> Looks like ramjets would be hard pressed to scoop up there own weight in
>> material over the time of a flight.
>
>  True but that is not to scrap the idea just yet. A say 
> 1/4C to 1/12C for round  figures.

I'ld drop ramscoops.  We've no idea if they'ld work, or if they'ld produce
more thrust then drag.  Too little info to suggest a speed.
 
>> > f) fussion reactor with
>> >  hybernation 1/10C to 1/200C
>> >
>> > g) Fussion reactor with
>> >    basard ramjet with
>> >  hybernation
>> >    1/10C to 1/200C
>> 
>> We havent a clue of how to do hibernation, and if your stupid enough to
launch
>> a flight at 1/200th light speed you deserve all the ridicule your
desendants
>> will receave in 900 years when you get to Alpha Centari.  Lets face it,
they
>> won't be the first earth ship there by a few centuries at least!
>
>   Hybernation where you turn into a block of ice is out 
> for shure, but chipmunks do it all the time and now 
> that the cause of cell death is known genenic
> modifycation could do it for a the crew. A faster ship 
> may not be practical like any of the designs
> discused here. Ok then 1/12C to 1/30C 60 to 150 years.

Slow ships add so much more complexity and relyability problems, its easier to
build a impractical faster ship (add an order of magnitude to the fuel) then
make one that can last for decades more.
 
>===
>
>  Anything greater than 1/30C. Mass evacuation when 
> the sun goes nova.
>  ( ok the sun will not go nova but sounds good).
 
   ;)

>> Kelly
>
> Ben.

Kelly