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

From: Matthew Montchalin (montch_at_aracnet.com)
Date: 09/15/04 

Date: Wed, 15 Sep 2004 04:08:22 -0700

|From: "N:dlzc D:aol T:com \(dlzc\)" <N: dlzc1 D:cox T:net@nospam.com>
|Newsgroups: sci.physics.relativity, sci.astro.amateur, uk.sci.astronomy,
| sci.space.policy, sci.astro.seti
|Subject: Re: Interstellar Propulsion idea using an Asteroid and a few
| comets!
|
|Dear Martin 53N 1W:

   <snip>

|If you were not in a terrible hurry, and were only making periodic course
|corrections, you could sail off towards the stars at a low enough velocity
|that the momentum difference would not be high enough to shatter your
|asteroid. Say at five hundred or a thousand km/sec. Enough stuff could
|pile up on the front end to provide reaction mass... Harvesting it might be
|problematic... ;>)

For a 30,000 year 'hibernation' ship, a scale could keep track of the
increase in mass, and when the scale is finally tipped, systems could
come alive to harvest the mass and make use of it, if at all possible.

Sure would be nice if the extra stuff that piles up could be thrown in a
fusion reactor for use as fuel somehow.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Interstellar Propulsion idea using an Asteroid and a few comets!
    ... |Subject: Re: Interstellar Propulsion idea using an Asteroid and a few ... Harvesting it might be ... For a 30,000 year 'hibernation' ship, a scale could keep track of the ... increase in mass, and when the scale is finally tipped, systems could ...
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  • Re: Interstellar Propulsion idea using an Asteroid and a few comets!
    ... |Subject: Re: Interstellar Propulsion idea using an Asteroid and a few ... Harvesting it might be ... For a 30,000 year 'hibernation' ship, a scale could keep track of the ... increase in mass, and when the scale is finally tipped, systems could ...
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