On Fri, 15 Oct 2004 14:54:36 -0500, Jon Berndt wrote:

In this article on MSNBC.com:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3217961/

"At the start of the trip, the [near-] Earth station would focus its
particle beam on the magnetic sail of a Mars-bound space taxi, pushing it to

That JPL/Lockmart JIMO design is sure getting a lot of abuse...last I
looked that graphic had been shanghaied as the carrier craft of
a student tripartite Kuiper Belt probe. Now it's a space station.... JimO
is gaining weight...


Nowhere is mention made that this particle beam causes any "equal and
opposite" action at the particle-beam source. If this near-Earth station is
blasting a particle beam into space that causes a spaceship to accelerate
(momentum transfer) to "tens of thousands" of mph ... what is the source
doing to maintain position or orbital velocity? Am I missing something?

Just handwave in electrodynamic tethers and you can devise a
truly Rube Goldbergian propulsion scheme.

Jon

--
Chuck Stewart
"Anime-style catgirls: Threat? Menace? Or just studying algebra?"