Spike Jones wrote:
>
> Half the mass would be launched the opposite direction
> that the ELP was travelling around the sunlike star [SLS]
> and the other half would be launched in the orbit direction
> so that the forward launched matter would have escape
> velocity from the SLS and would never be seen again,
> whereas the matter launched the other way would form
> a counterrotating ring, diameter equal to the orbit diameter
> of the ELP, which would pass thru the tunnel in the ELP.
No, you need not lose *any* of the mass removed from the planet- first off,
the axis change, despin and orbit change can be accomplished with the same
reaction mass, by offsetting the mass driver from the cg of the planet.
Next, the radiator masses can be launched in various directions as needed
to trim the planet's orbit, then deploy solar sails and maneuver themselves
into the retrograde orbit- and use those sails to *stay* in that orbit.
> This is an engineering task that Ray Charles would agree
> is difficult even if you *know* how to do it. spike
Well, yeah, but compare this to Keith Henson's talk of changing the
spectral output of a class M star by floating Dyson hemispheres of hovering
solar sails around it...
-- Doug Jones Rocket Plumber, XCOR Aerospace http://www.xcor-aerospace.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Jul 27 2000 - 14:03:35 MDT