🚀 go-pugleaf

i lied.

well, sorta. The *correct* name of the book from my earlier posting is 
"The Starflight Handbook", by Eugene Mallove and Gregory Matloff.
Its ISBN number is 0-471-61912-4. *sigh* memory is the first to go...

Chapter 7 is the one which deals with the Bussard Ramjet. It details not
only the Bussard design, but two variants which are more feasable using
current technology and theory. The difficulties with p-p fusion as noted
in the net discussion are mentioned; one of the variants addresses this
problem. The net analysis by the authors is that ramscoops are probably
limited to .2 c and not the most cost effective way to get around the
near stars. They add the caveat that this is in terms of *current* 
technology; a breakthrough in any of a half-dozen fields might change
the picture enormously. 

The book also considers several other interstellar flight systems. It
has very good coverage of the Daedalus probe designed by the British
Interplanetary Society back in the 70's and project Orion.

Happy 1993!

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|  Nathan F. Wallace                           |      ______/ /_/___    |
|  email: wallacen@beethoven.cs.colostate.edu  |     / ____  ______ \   |
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