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In-flight comet mining for water and fuel
First Abdul Ahad you must face facts. If you come up with a bad idea, it
remains a bad idea no matter how many times you repeat it. There is nothing wrong or shameful in changing your designs in the face of facts, other words when life hands you lemons make lemonade. (Abdul Ahad) : Dear All, I would like some advice and comments please on the feasibility to mine comets in-flight on a hypothetical futuristic spaceflight mission towards Alpha Centauri, I have outlined in this research article:- http://uk.geocities.com/aa_spaceagen...ropulsion.html Problem stop and go along a trip to any stars will really slow you down, it is better to start with all the materials needed and just have one long flight, the time savings are huge. Specific questions I have a Is it feasible to have a large scale robotic arm on the scale of some 2 or 3 kilometres in length that can stand the stress of gripping onto comets whilst the ship is docking with them (gently) in-flight? Few materials are stiff at that lenght, asking for an arm pushs material science to the limits and beyond, what is wrong with a free flyer or a tethered remote unit? You don't need an arm, you need a gripper - drop the arm. Based on the current material science advances, is this kind of framework conceivably viable for tens of *thousands* of years on such a long voyage well into the future? Will it be structurally robust enough to withstand several docking maneouvres with comets? No, because even at 1% of C a trip to Alpha Centauri is less than 500 years away. No-one is going to build your thousands of years voyage design when there are designs that will do the same trip in just centuries. Light sails, Orion Pulse, Nuclear fragment all will do the job a lot faster. Since the main asteroid ship is rotating, if the comets are of say just a quarter or so the size/mass of the actual starship (the asteroid), when gripping comets in-flight, will the spin rate of the ship slow down too dramatically, when such a comet is gripped by the robotic arm? Do the math, not only will you slow down the rotation a lot, the stress involved are a danger to both the arm and the main ship. Why be so much greedy in the size of comets? Small is better, none is best. What is the best method of *steering* the starship (without affecting its spin) so as to "pitch" it from side to side or to turn it around? My own view would be to apply 'pulse' thrust at favourable points during the rotation. Is it feasible to do this? Yes it is possible, a better design is one that needs no steering because the course is set at the start, and only at the end of voyage do you need to move around. Really appreciate any thoughts on these. Many thanks. Abdul Ahad MODERATOR: Please can you consider this one in a serious light. I am getting heavy criticism on this aspect of my research article. Please be *kind* and let my post through... (I promise I wont pester this group again!). Cheers. Abdul. Real research looks for the answer, it does not predefine it before you even start. Earl Colby Pottinger -- I make public email sent to me! Hydrogen Peroxide Rockets, OpenBeos, SerialTransfer 3.0, RAMDISK, BoatBuilding, DIY TabletPC. What happened to the time? http://webhome.idirect.com/~earlcp |
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