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Yikes! 0130 Zulu! Past "Mad Max" time for me.

I'll be intermittent next 7 days (as if THAT's not SOP for me).

Dead Corpse,

Maybe we'd be better off getting the castle off the ground with anti-grav. The only danger there, is that you have to prevent the mass deposition of net magnetic monopoles in your magnetic cores otherwise they will explode. Of course, this is easily done by limit-controlling the power output.

Anti-grav eh?

Why not faerie dust?

Or hitch the enclosures to Dr. Doolittle's Luna Moths?

The stipulation is, we've already flown the castle three times, prior to Nuclear Rocket power. Since that time, even though we've added structure, we've also been busy reducing mass.

The ground below the castle is a hollow space frame, replacing the relatively solid regolith that formerly supported it.

Much of the material removed has been discarded, but salvageable and valuable minerals and ores have been scavenged from the demolition.

In its current state, if the portals to the outside were closed off, and the air pumped out of the castle enclosure, it could possibly rise into the atmosphere!

Large as it is, if the interior were vacuum, the outside atmosphere would lift it like a Helium balloon!

Unfortunately, we have no use for a castle enclosure with a vacuum for an atmosphere, nor would we be able to lift very far in Earth's atmosphere. We would top out at about five thousand feet, I guess.

We will have to load up the castle enclosure and its sister environments, with people, animals, plants of all descriptions, spare materials of every imaginable sort, and machines to fabricate what we don't yet know we need from whatever we remember to take along!

Our current lift-off plans rely upon the power of Nuclear engines. I have recently tripled the recommended number of thrust engines, out of concern that my calculations are in error, or that we will have much more in the way of cargo than expected at the appointed time.

When the day comes for lift-off, all engines will fire. -- We will know in minutes if the thrust is sufficient, because we will either rise, or we will not.

If we rise, we will continue on our way.

If we do not, we will re-evaluate the apparent thrust to weight ratio and take action accordingly.

We will not give up!

Unfortunately, because of the nature of world politics and the unknown power of these untested engines, we cannot run tests in advance, or we will attract unwanted attention.

When we lift off, if someone wants to discuss the matter at that time, we will be available for discussions. Until then, strict but reasonable security precautions, particularly over discussions about the "volatile" substance we are getting from the ocean's currents, will remain in force.