From: Technotranscendence (neptune@mars.superlink.net)
Date: Thu Jan 10 2002 - 18:27:14 MST
On Thursday, December 20, 2001 4:03 PM Amara Graps amara@amara.com
wrote:
> While I was searching for something else on NASA ADS, this abstract
> (title only) appeared:
>
> Title: The Magnetic Particle Plume Solar Sail Concept
> Authors: Knuth, W. H.
>
> Journal: Space Technology and Applications International Forum,
> Proceedings of a conference held in January,
> 2000, Albuquerque, NM. Edited by Mohamed S. El-Genk.
> New York: American Institute of Physics Press.
> AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 504, 2000, p.1588
[snip]
> Does anyone know what this 'concept' is? I'm curious.
Amara, I believe I read somewhere a few years ago -- less than five, but
probably more than one -- about using magnetic fields to sail on the
solar wind -- as opposed to the typical solar sail concept which relies
on photonic pressure. The beauty of this concept was that you didn't
have to assemble a sail, but could have a much smaller device that
created the magnetic field which the charged particles from the sun
would react to. I'm not sure if this is what the abstract is talking
about, but it's the closest my feeble mind can come to such sublime
notions.
My two cents!
Relurking!
Daniel Ust
http://uweb.superlink.net/neptune/
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