Re: starship-design: Thoughts on antimatter and fusion...

[KellySt@aol.com]

In a message dated 2/7/01 8:02:11 PM, lparker@cacaphony.net writes:

>
>But what I was getting at is that it may be possible once we understand
>the
>nature of matter a little better, to simply coerce it into changing states
>in an organized manner to produce nearly  one hundred percent efficient
>thrust. Of course, I have no idea now how that might be done...

Agreed.  A direct mass energy conversion concept would be a great idea, and 
might be possible -- somehow?



>However, I'm still with Marc Millis on the precept that true interstellar
>flight requires a "breakthrough" in propulsion physics, that reaction drives
>are NOT the answer. What I just described is an evolutionary approach,
>not a
>revolutionary approach.
>
> My personal favorite has always been inertia, which seems to be yielding
>a
>few hints of being manipulable based on recent theoretical work. One can
>always hope, meanwhile, we keep whittling away at what we know works to
>make
>it better...
>
>Lee

I also note that kinetic energy is something we don't understand, and hence 
might be able to play games with.  ;0

Kelly