New propulsion concept could make 90-day Mars round trip possible

University of Washington News Office ^ | 14 October 2004 | Vince Stricherz

[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.

[rightwingreligiousfanatic]

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

LOL! I cannae resist, Captain! The laughter/anti-laughter valve is broken!

[Shryke]

#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.

HAH! Easily done! The length of travel, in my case, is a matter of inches.

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

Hm. Let's send some Democrats.

[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.

[SedVictaCatoni]

How does it work ?

Nail a Frisbee upright on a skateboard.

Aim a garden hose at the Frisbee. The skateboard will scoot away.

Keep aiming the hose at the Frisbee until the skateboard makes it to Mars, so to speak.

Engineering issues involved: Do we need a squirt gun, a garden hose, or a firehose? Also: since we can't move the hose, how do we make sure that the skateboard keeps moving in a straight line?

[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.

[wotan]

All ions have mass, magnetized or not. An ion is just an atom or molecule with more or less than the normal number of electrons.

My guess is the plasma station has two ion guns. One shoots at the sail. The other shoots opposite. Ions hit the sail, propelling the ship. The use of a second gun prevents the station from recoiling, although more energy has to be used for the second gun than the first to compensate for rebounding ions from the sail striking the station.

[theFIRMbss]

>Any risk to people caught in a beam? What if one of these things becomes misaligned?

[O.C. - Old Cracker]

As an environmentalist I would be opposed to placing nuclear reactors on the moon. Think of the potential damage from an accident. And who are we to spoil the beautiful landscape of the Moon?

[Sybeck1]

All Trek Fans check this out; its a hoot!


http://newvoyages.com/downloads.html

[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?

[hosepipe]

[ Engineering issues involved: Do we need a squirt gun, a garden hose, or a firehose? Also: since we can't move the hose, how do we make sure that the skateboard keeps moving in a straight line?v ]

Smile when you say hose, greenhorn d;-'
(fondling 3 marbles aka; Captain Queeg..)

[Drammach]

How does it work ?

Solar Sail concept... as stated in the article..
With a solar sail, one catches the "solar wind", and uses it to propel your vehicle much as a sailboat uses wind here on earth.. no difference..

With this concept, we create our own concentrated solar wind or it's equivalent.. much like a lazer compared to a flashlight..
All the mass is at the power source. That is mass that doesn't have to be moved to the destination..
Less mass, more speed with less energy..

However, due to the lack of an actual "engine" to propel or brake the vessel...
A second "mag-beam" unit must first be placed at or near the destination point..
approximately midway along the journey, unit #2 must take over, and provide an "equal and opposite" force for braking.. to slow the vessel to an appropriate speed and trajectory for orbital insertion..

There would still have to be some sort of propulsion device(s) on board for course corrections, attitude adjustment, etc..
But the amount of mass required for main propulsion, fuel, etc.. would be eliminated, resulting in a faster one-way and round trip..

[PatrickHenry]

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

I'm guessing, but they'd probably break in the Martian atmosphere. I suppose it would take a few orbits.

[rightwingreligiousfanatic]

[SedVictaCatoni]

I am laughing so hard that my stomach hurts.

Maybe Rutan can investigate the possibilities of the spelljamming helm. I so badly want a Dragonfly.