[PatrickHenry]

Anyone who wants to glance at the title and then post something clever and original like:

1. Bush did it;
2. Daschle is deeply sadened;
3. A full-screen Star Trek pic;

is certainly free to do so, but please address your post to someone other than me.

[PatrickHenry]

Science list Ping! This is an elite subset of the Evolution list.
See the list's description in my freeper homepage. Then FReepmail me to be added or dropped.

[bondserv]

#3

[Little Pig]

Any risk to people caught in a beam? What if one of these things becomes misaligned? Arcturus here we come?

[Thrusher]

Please, Lord, oh please give me the strength to resist the temptation.

[BenLurkin]

Ping

[mrsmith]

A cheap place to put a nuclear power station to generate the beam is ... the Moon.

[beezdotcom]

So, what do they do with the reverse acceleration given the beam GENERATOR?

[azhenfud]

Let me take a shot at this:

If the plasma beam is sent TO Mars and the "sails" are pushed in that direction - what drives the "sails" on the return leg. Half of a two and a half year voyage is still fifteen months - not ninety days.

[babyface00]

My physics is a little rusty...

Do magnetized ions have mass? If so, then would that require this device to be anchored on a large mass, like a planet/moon/etc or have some sort of opposite force to keep the device in place in space as the ions spew out?

[hosepipe]

I don't get it..
Is it like putting a carrot on a string in front of a donkey ?..
or useing spurs and whip to motivate the donkey from behind..?
or even like useing an electric fan in a sailboat..

How does it work ?

[JoJo Gunn]

Must be lonely at the top....

[Bronco_Buster_FweetHyagh]

Obvious problems with this concept:

#1 Good luck keeping a space ship in that tiny stream over billions of miles. That's like trying to urinate from the top of HalfDome in Yosemite and land it in a thimble at the bottom of the hill.

#2 I'm pretty sure that mega-beam would be bad for your nuts.

[Ijo]

Interesting schtuff. But it doesn't appear practical. The destination would be bombarded with particles. Not sure, but there must be some mass involved in order to move an object, would there be any effect on the orbit of the destination planet? The article states one would have to be at the destination to slow the vehicle down, I wouldn't want to be around during a brown out, or an eclipse on the return flight. There would be one shot, or get pushed to Pluto.... But then again, unlike Kerry/Edwards, we haven't been there either.

[The_Victor]

Under the mag-beam concept, a space-based station would generate a stream of magnetized ions that would interact with a magnetic sail on a spacecraft and propel it through the solar system at high speeds that increase with the size of the plasma beam.

Just a thought, but without primary propulsion on board, how do you stop?

[Pilsner]

But to make such high speeds practical, another plasma unit must be stationed on a platform at the other end of the trip

This sounds just light the light sail in The Mote in God's Eye, only not so pretty to look at.

[O.C. - Old Cracker]

There is a large deposit of dilithium crystals on Mars.

[Sir Gawain]

[Publius6961]

I can get to work in 3.6 seconds instead of 38 minutes?

Where do I get one?

[TC Rider]

Does this count?

[jagusafr]

"But to make such high speeds practical, another plasma unit must be stationed on a platform at the other end of the trip to apply brakes to the spacecraft"

I'm sorry, but THAT mental picture set off SUCH a gigglin' fit! And yes, Texas men DO giggle occasionally!