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Re: Re: starship-design: Suspended animation.
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