starship-design: Launch Craft.and IEC.

[Ben Franchuk <bfranchuk@jetnet.ab.ca>]

KellySt@aol.com wrote:
>
> Actually I was talking about heating electrically.  Generate a arc and the
> air that plows through it gets hot.  The result is also pretty ionized so
> microwaves can be used to heat it more easily.

It would have to be Direct conversion to electricity however.
 
> The papers were
... CUT ....
Since nobody has got fusion working with power gain, most of the
ideas while valuable are outdated because when fusion does work
all the numbers needs to be revised again.

>  (This is an introduction to the application of Bussard's version of the
> Farnsworth/Hirsch electrostatic confinement fusion technology to propulsion.
> Which gives specific impulses of between 1500  and 5000 secounds.
> Farnsworth/Hirsch demonstrated a 10**10 neutron flux with their device back
> in 1969 but it was dropped when panic ensued over the surprising stability of
> the Soviet Tokamak. Hirsch, responsible for the panic, has recently recanted
> and is back working on QED. -- Jim Bowery)

I read the quote before, but that was with a D-T reaction and you can't
experiment with D-T unless you be some TOP-SECRET HUSH HUSH LAB for
USA government research. What I want to know is the % of fusion power to
input power and the projected power output of the current batch of IEC
devices now and 5 years down the road.

Assuming it takes 100 watts for 1 second of thust,for 3,000 seconds
that is 300Kw(225HP?) for 1 kg of thrust.1 Megawatt gives you 3 kg of thrust.
Good for a space tug but not a craft to take you into LEO.
Darn back to good old chemical rockets. I  still favor a two stage orbital
craft... Manned 1st stage and unmanned 2 stage to dock at a space station.
( I also favor 12/24 bit computers but that is another story )

> 
> Anyway if you go to a good library (especially a university libray) they
> should be able to get you a copy of these easy.  If that doesn't work I could
> scan things in and mail you, but those images would keep both our modelm
> going for a long time.  ;)

Ha - If I had access to that I would save on rent... just put my
cot under that stack of books there and ...
-- 
"We do not inherit our time on this planet from our parents...
 We borrow it from our children."
"Ancient Logic" http://www.jetnet.ab.ca/users/bfranchuk/al/index.html