RE: starship-design: Will We Travel to the Stars? by Freeman Dyson

["L. Parker" <lparker@cacaphony.net>]

> I'm not sure what you mean about being out of touch with research, but
> Dyson does fairly eloquently state the problems with developing
> interstellar spacecraft, particularly the amounts of energy required.
>
> I think he may be a bit pessimistic about the rate of technological
> development, and he's also only looking at low-velocity travel.
>
> Anyone know how to find Robert Forward so I could ask him join our
> mailing list :-)?

The statement that really bothered me was the one about heat control. He
seemed to be assuming that we would only be able to use material means to
control heat absorption by the engine. There are already several magnetic
nozzle test beds running that circumvent most of this problem.

We did have a research engineer lurking on the list last year, I don't
remember his name, just that he was some sort of physicist.

Lee