Re: [FT] Railgun/Fuel Chat Results

>hmm - the inner politburo has met and pronounced the Truth (tm) ...

Now now, I didn't even present it as such.

>executive summary: fusion fuel is not an issue. reaction mass is
probably
>an issue.

Good point.

[snipped hydrogen stuff]

>the question is, how are you going to turn this energy into thrust? if
>you have grav drives or photon drives, then it is complicated but just
>requires some machinery. if you are going to use a reaction drive (ie a
>nuclear rocket), you will need reaction mass. you may well need a lot
of
>reaction mass, depending on how fast you can accelerate it. if you go
for
>boiling water with the fusion energy and venting it into space, you
will
>need an immense amount, and will need to replenish frequently - icy
>comets, asteroids, planetary ring bodies, etc, are possible sources. if
>you are using a super-high-velocity ion drive, then your reaction mass
>needs will be more modest.

I'm afraid that I'm not up on my near future drives. Anyone else want to
have a gander?

Schoon