Re: Re: starship-design: Suspended animation.

[Connor <chithree@boo.net>]

On a totally irelevant subject, I thought of a form of passive interstellar travel, and I 
wanted to run it by all you thinky-types before I look stupid in the real world. I'm calling 
it the Casimir-Foreward balloon, and it runs solely on microwave radiation all through 
space. It's based on actual facts, but a few of the materials involved are semi-theoretical.

materials: A thin mesh that will block some microwaves (ma) and let others through (mb)
	        A material that lowers the frequency of mb microwaves to ma (like a 
phosphor.)

construction: First you make a very light buffer system, like the inside of a car muffler, 
and 	            coat it in the 'phosphor'. Now wrap the mesh all around it, leaving an 
	 		    opening in the back. That's about it.

	The idea, which you've probably figured out, is that the microwaves pass through 
the mesh and are lowered in frequency, getting trapped and deflected until they exit 
out the back. You could trail some kind of habitat behind it, and it wouldn't need any 
fuel.
	There are just a few problems. First, I'm totally uneducated, and may be missing a 
very obvious point that renders my whole idea impossible, thus making me look like a 
goon. Secondly, you would need a cartoonishly big balloon, and thirdly, travel would 
start out very slow, but eventually become almost as fast as the light leaving it (like ion 
drives.)

	Is this possible, and then is it practical?


Connor
chithree@boo.net
Connor
chithree@boo.net