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- From: higgins@fnalo.fnal.gov (Bill Higgins-- Beam Jockey)
- Newsgroups: sci.space
- Subject: Keeping ramjet stoked (was Re: *** BUSSARD RAMSCOOP ***)
- Date: 7 Jan 93 12:46:08 -0600
- Organization: Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
- Lines: 35
- Message-ID: <1993Jan7.124608.1@fnalo.fnal.gov>
- References: <C0CKyt.7o0@zoo.toronto.edu> <wwLXwB4w165w@tradent.wimsey.bc.ca> <C0GH9C.DA@zoo.toronto.edu>
- NNTP-Posting-Host: fnalo.fnal.gov
-
- In article <C0GH9C.DA@zoo.toronto.edu>, henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) writes:
- > In article <wwLXwB4w165w@tradent.wimsey.bc.ca> lord@tradent.wimsey.bc.ca (Jason Cooper) writes:
- >>2) you won't have to carry
- >>around what I see as becoming GIGANTIC amounts of antimatter...
- >
- > The amounts of antimatter get huge only when you start trying to achieve
- > seriously relativistic velocities.
-
- Does a Bussard ramjet work *at all* below seriously relativistic
- velocities?
-
- Seems to me below some large speed, which I recall as
- something much bigger than .5c, you don't gather enough interstellar
- hydrogen to keep things stoked. Admittedly I remember details rather
- fuzzily, and don't know how to apply them to the "ram-augmented
- interstellar rocket" Henry is talking about.
-
- To learn more, by the way, consult articles by A.R. Martin and others
- concerning "ram-augmented interstellar rockets" (RAIR) in *Journal of
- the British Interplanetary Society* somewhere between 1975 and the
- present.
-
- Bob Forward did a bibliography of literature on interstellar flight in
- the same period, which a couple of Czech guys updated later, all in
- the pages of *JBIS*. This may be very helpful to Jason Cooper in his
- project. Good luck finding a library that has this journal, though!
-
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