Re: Small interstellar payloads

ianparker2@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
The Forward proposal involves using a laser based at the START. This
means that you need an extremely large phase coherent array. One sail
beaks away and focusses light onlo a second sail.

Ah! Now I remember that one. *nods* The engineering looked tricky, but it doesn't obviously violate any laws of physics; maybe it might work.

There is one possible way to use antimatter to decererate a small
payload and thar is to use a semi Forward strategy. You seaparate your
probe from the main mass. The main mass then goes ahead. It contains
enough AM to decelerate the probe but not enough to decelerate itself.
It has an antimatter engine, this engine could in fact be an antimatter
cold muonic He3/D fusion engine. Antimatter provides the only sound
example of cold fusion. It does this by creating muonic atoms. When I
talk about cold fusion the fusion is only partially cold. A lot of self
sustaining fusion will occur.

This then fires up a laser system with deleration occuring though a
dielectric sail.

Hmm, interesting idea... so a large payload is accelerated, but only a small one decelerated and delivered to the destination.

My guess is that if you've got a big enough module to run an antimatter engine and laser system, it'll be big enough to run a magnetic brake, and I'm inclined to think that would be cheaper (macroscopic quantities of antimatter seem likely to remain _very_ expensive, even when we have full nanotechnology), and that gets you a fairly large payload delivered.

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Relevant Pages

  • Re: Small interstellar payloads
    ... beaks away and focusses light onlo a second sail. ... It has an antimatter engine, this engine could in fact be an antimatter ... cold muonic He3/D fusion engine. ... talk about cold fusion the fusion is only partially cold. ...
    (sci.space.policy)
  • Pie in the sky nonsense; TRUE space travel
    ... One of the sources mentioned in this fanciful article is "fusion." ... we already have space craft venturing into interstellar ... A study by NASA in 1998 identified 3 potential propulsion technologies ... the backside of the sail needs to be an effective radiator. ...
    (sci.astro.amateur)
  • Re: Small interstellar payloads
    ... In fact you would not need that much antimatter. ... The energy would be multiplied using fusion. ... As a small mass is decelerated not that much energy is needed. ...
    (sci.space.policy)
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