Re: Alderson Drive

At 12:08 AM 9/5/00 -0400, Jerry wrote:
>NOTE:	SPOILERS FOR GRIPPING HAND AND MOTE IN GOD'S EYE
>Does any of the Pournelle/Niven books given any PSB on how or why 
>two stars would be connected through an Alderson point? 

Okay, from various points in The Gripping Hand:

Talking about the periodic jump point to New Utah, p.49: "When [the
neutron
star] dips close to the major sun, solar wind and meteors rain down
through
that godawful gravity field.  It flares.  The Jump points depend on
electromagnetic output.  You get a Jump point link that lasts maybe two
years."  (And must be hard as hell to find, since that output has to be
variable.... --Aaron)

Kevin's lecture on Alderson points to Merser on board Sinbad, p.114:
"Ships
travel along Alderson tramlines.  Tramlines form between stars, along
lines
of equipotential flux.	...[I]t means they don't form between all pairs
of
stars.	Not all the tramlines are useful, because if the flux densities
aren't high enough, they won't carry anything big enough to have a drive
aboard.
"The Mote sits out there with the Coal Sack on one side and the big red
supergiant Murcheson's Eye on the other.  The Eye is big and bright.  So
bright that the only useful tramline from the Mote is not only to the
Eye,
it terminates inside the supergiant."

Kevin, on thermonuclear fluxes, during the emergency Commission meeting,
p.161: "[F]inding an Alderson point was one of the trickiest things we
could do.  It's never easy, and it's impossible during heavy sunspot
activity or during a battle, because Alderson events are very responsive
to
thermonuclear fluxes."

...and since I'm now past where they've jumped into the Mote, I think
that's about it.  I may have missed a quote or two, but nothing major (I
think ^_^ ).  Just to note, the page numbers are for the hardbound
edition.
 Interestingly enough, it's always Kevin doing the explaining.

Hope this helps....
					Aaron