From: Eugene Leitl (Eugene.Leitl@lrz.uni-muenchen.de)
Date: Fri Jan 05 2001 - 04:15:35 MST
On Fri, 5 Jan 2001, John Clark wrote:
> They figure a Americium-242 rocket could get to Mars in two weeks not two years
> as with a chemical rocket.
Hmm, a light plate (foil sail, possibly made of neutron reflectors) with
~1 um coating of Am-242 giving directional thrust. If it doesn't heat up
too much, it won't sublimate. I wonder what the half life time is, you
might have to refresh the americium coating weekly, or so.
How many newtons thrust will we be getting from a 10000 m^2 sail, roughly?
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