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Mission to Alpha Centauri
You may be interested in a novel by Charles Pellegrino; "flying to Valhala".
Set several years from now, industrial tech is such that robotic factories can build acres of solar panels on the moon from local material. This concept is extended to Mercury, where the humongous power generated is used to run a particle accellerator which, in turn, produces antihydrogen. After the anthydrogen plant has run for several years its used to fuel a starship on a trip to Alpha Centauri. The vehicle is manned, takes 10 years to get there, and goes into orbit around the 4th planet. Some interesting concepts: - crew module trails many kilometres behind the engines via a tether. - engine coolant is sprayed out front of the vehicle to protect against dust impact. Some coolant is recovered using a magnetic field. - acceleration for the initial part of the trip was high. Then the vehicle decellerated (lightly) for the remainder of the trip (gravity substitute). Jim |
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