--- David Nicol davidnicol@gmail.com wrote:
On Tue, 29 Mar 2005 17:56:35 -0600, Oren Beck oren_beck@hotmail.com wrote:
...
Has anyone else read Gerard O'Neil's "The High Frontier"
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/189652267X/tipjartransactioA/
I'll have to check it out.
My reccomendation for an ion rocket is to use iron. Choose a suitable iron asteroid, set up camp in it, accelerate your iron ions and fling them out one way, save enough mass to decelerate after you get wherever you're going, but the question of where the energy to do all the ion accelerating comes from is still up in the air.
Well, one way would be to use a nuclear fission reactor. Alternatively, a more conventional power plant should work. The main problem is the amount of fuel needed to power everything.
Brian D.
__________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Small Business - Try our new resources site! http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/resources/