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Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / Re: Can we hitch a ride on a comet /Traveling through space
« on: 17/12/2006 14:08:16 »
Quote "What exactly do you mean by stationary equipment?"
Thank you for being curious. I can not describe exactly what it should be, only a rough description. It could be a construction, likewise a generator that is driven by the flow of water here on earth on a storage lake, only much stronger. Another way could be a kind of magnetic field, where the exhaustparticles can flow through ; if they are negative or positive charged, in which case it should behave like a current through a stationary magnet, causing a movement in this kind of a motor (of course, that stream shouldn't flow just right through it, but be forced to follow a certain trajectory, in analogy with a classical electric motor, but I think there is not much of a change building hardware that can withstand such huge mechanical powers.
The main idea is extreme strong hardware, anchored on the comet, that uses the flow of leaving particles to drive a generator, be it mechanical, be it electrical.
With the power you get, you can use it right away, but even important, there has to be power accumulated, as the cometexhaust is not constant, an keeps decreasing when moving from the sun. Hence the idea of splitting the dirty ice in hydrogen, because that is storable for later use.
P.S. : a userreply on another forum let me know that there has been several sciencefictionwriters who have explored the idea of 'riding a comet'. I haven't read English literature and so I can't judge the value of their idea's, but I wouldn't be surprised if they had good idea's. Hopefully, some scientists read such literature and get some fresh idea's instead of losing time and money with projects like ISS (I heard a large podcast with a highly respected pioneermember of NASA itself, it was shocking what (and why) he thought of the scientific value of many NASA-projects. If you insist, I try to look it up and drop the link later if it still exists on the web, or send you the mp3 if I still have it).
Thank you for being curious. I can not describe exactly what it should be, only a rough description. It could be a construction, likewise a generator that is driven by the flow of water here on earth on a storage lake, only much stronger. Another way could be a kind of magnetic field, where the exhaustparticles can flow through ; if they are negative or positive charged, in which case it should behave like a current through a stationary magnet, causing a movement in this kind of a motor (of course, that stream shouldn't flow just right through it, but be forced to follow a certain trajectory, in analogy with a classical electric motor, but I think there is not much of a change building hardware that can withstand such huge mechanical powers.
The main idea is extreme strong hardware, anchored on the comet, that uses the flow of leaving particles to drive a generator, be it mechanical, be it electrical.
With the power you get, you can use it right away, but even important, there has to be power accumulated, as the cometexhaust is not constant, an keeps decreasing when moving from the sun. Hence the idea of splitting the dirty ice in hydrogen, because that is storable for later use.
P.S. : a userreply on another forum let me know that there has been several sciencefictionwriters who have explored the idea of 'riding a comet'. I haven't read English literature and so I can't judge the value of their idea's, but I wouldn't be surprised if they had good idea's. Hopefully, some scientists read such literature and get some fresh idea's instead of losing time and money with projects like ISS (I heard a large podcast with a highly respected pioneermember of NASA itself, it was shocking what (and why) he thought of the scientific value of many NASA-projects. If you insist, I try to look it up and drop the link later if it still exists on the web, or send you the mp3 if I still have it).