Re: starship-design: Massively Distributed Computing for SETI

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

KellySt@aol.com wrote:

> Note, I've always assumed beam dispersal would make beamed power useless out
> more then a few light months from the transmitters (hence my fuel-sail idea).
 
I expect that is over optimistic. A few light days I guess would be practical.
Most likely acceleration will be near and in the solar system but the real
limiting factor is heat. Heat is hard to get rid of in space.
> 
> It is completly impossible that we would be able to precisely know the
> possition and sppeed of a ship months or years after the last view of it.
> Any system that has to depend on that would be to dangerous and unrelyable.
> So the system must be designed to not need to rely on that degree of
> precision to function.

I agree.

> Kelly

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