Re: Real Life Thrust (was: hyperspace)

> >Well if we're talking sci-fi, they could probably find a way to push
a black
> >hole. ;)
> >Mike Miserendino
>	  I remember a Jerry Pournelle article in which he suggested
dropping
> same-charged particles into a black hole to build up a charge, then
moving
> it around electrostatically!
It'd have to be a bloody big charge to overcome the gravity. 
Actually, that reminds me of my favourite 'star drive' theory. This 
requires the idea that you can control and generate gravity. What you 
do is create a 'virtual mass' in front of your ship, and the body of 
the ship accelerates towards it down the gravity well. But of course, 
the point of mass is a fixed distance in front of the ship, so now 
that's moved. Basically, you can keep on going as far as you like 
with this, and it doesn't have any of the problems of buzzard ramjets 
or nuclear explosive pulses or riding laser beams etc...

Of course, generating gravity is a but, um, 'nontrivial' :-).
 
> Rob Paul
> NERC Institute of Virology 
> Mansfield Road, Oxford OX1 3SR    Tel. (01865) 512361
> rkp@mail.nerc-oxford.ac.uk
>
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>   "Once again, villainy is rotting meat before the maggots of
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