In a message dated 03/18/2000 12:59:43 PM Eastern Standard Time,
retroman@turbont.net writes:
> A Bussard Ramjet is a reaction drive. It uses the heat of a fusion
> reaction from collected hydrogen to expand that collected gas through a
> forcing cone. There is signifanct debate as to whether the magnetic
> field used to collect the interstellar hydrogen will actually work, or
> whether it will simply act as a brake.
>
> Mike Lorrey
Zubrin tried to propose it ( a magsail) as a means of slowing down by
reacting with a star's magneto-tail. On the other hand work by Wingslee at U
of Montana suggests that using a weak ionized plasma would be a good way of
propulsion by reacting with the Sun's magneto-tail. Either way, fun fun fun.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Jul 27 2000 - 14:05:46 MDT