Re: Interstellar Propulsion idea using an Asteroid and a few comets!

From: N:dlzc D:aol T:com \(dlzc\) (net_at_nospam.com)
Date: 09/17/04 

Date: Fri, 17 Sep 2004 07:17:58 -0700

Dear Matthew Montchalin:

"Matthew Montchalin" <montch@aracnet.com> wrote in message
news:Pine.LNX.4.44.0409161808510.6023-100000@onyx.spiritone.com...
> <re: encounters with sand and dust>
>
> |From: "N:dlzc D:aol T:com \(dlzc\)" <N: dlzc1 D:cox T:net@nospam.com>
...
> |> |Maybe, rotating the plow asteroid slowly...
> |>
> |> Wouldn't rotating a fairly fast, energetic object cause it to develop
> |> magnetic fields? ...I'll confess my ignorance here.
> |
> |Only if it is charged, and the charge is not all located near the center
> of
> |rotation.
>
> As a ship travels, it gains and loses charges randomly, doesn't it,
> according to quantum laws? So at any given time there will be a
> brief but faint magnetic field supplementing the fields that are
> deeper inside the ship?

Not a field, such as the Earth has. Not a field set up on purpose, to draw
additional material to the "poles".

> |> Assuming there are nuclear reactors powered by fission, and turbines
> |> rotating to generate electricity, would rotating the thing create a
> |> whole bunch of magnetic patterns, no simple north and south poles,
> |> but a whole bunch of poles?
> |
> |No, the poles would be at near the interections of the axis of rotation
> |with the surface. Much like it is with the Earth.
>
> Even Mars has numerous faint magnetic poles, all of them lingering
> on from aeons ago, back when it had a hotter and more liquid core.
> If the ship has a core that is spinning, and charges are allowed
> to travel around the charge, won't that be enough to induce a field
> around the ship?

Likely not enough to draw more material to the asteroid. And not enough to
"protect" the ship (whether it is the core, or following behind).

David A. Smith

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