Xref: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu rec.arts.sf.science:5719 sci.space:60827 Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.science,sci.space Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!crabapple.srv.cs.cmu.edu!bb3.andrew.cmu.edu!news.sei.cmu.edu!cis.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!utnut!utzoo!henry From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) Subject: Re: Orion drive in vacuum -- how? Message-ID: Date: Fri, 16 Apr 1993 20:28:17 GMT References: <1qn4bgINN4s7@mimi.UU.NET> Organization: U of Toronto Zoology Lines: 15 In article <1qn4bgINN4s7@mimi.UU.NET> goltz@mimi.UU.NET (James P. Goltz) writes: > Would this work? I can't see the EM radiation impelling very much >momentum (especially given the mass of the pusher plate), and it seems >to me you're going to get more momentum transfer throwing the bombs >out the back of the ship than you get from detonating them once >they're there. The Orion concept as actually proposed (as opposed to the way it has been somewhat misrepresented in some fiction) included wrapping a thick layer of reaction mass -- probably plastic of some sort -- around each bomb. The bomb vaporizes the reaction mass, and it's that which transfers momentum to the pusher plate. -- All work is one man's work. | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology - Kipling | henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry