Re: starship-design: LINAC efficiency

["bugzapper" <bugzappr@bellsouth.net>]

All right, Steve, I'll get to work on the numbers for a 1 g scenario, but I
don't feel limited to using those technologies (ramscoops and fusion) you've
indicated you don't like. Anything that works is fair. I already agreed
ramscoop drag, as you pointed out, is a major factor restricting its use,
particularly approaching relativistic velocity. I did mention this drag
factor is a positive contribution during deceleration phase. Like a fusion
generator, I think I can show that a ram scoop is better to have, than to
lack.

As I pointed out in my last post, none of us know the local interstellar gas
density. To recognize that, is better than to think we know it, when we
don't. I shared all the most recent publications I noticed, which favor a
higher density figure, than the ones which have been taken as rendering
ramscoops unfeasible.

Kelly, the silicate dust excited Dr. Landgraf, specifically because it marks
gas clouds elsewhere. Seeing it here, probably means we're in a gas cloud,
just like the others seen previously. Being in a gas cloud means ram scoops
deserve a closer look.

Johnny Thunderbird