Re: World building: implications of counter gravity

The question that popped into my mind is whether you could use your
drive
to actually generate thrust, or if it's only good for getting away from
the 'strongest' gravitational field.  Otherwise, to actually get
somewhere
once you're in space would be a struggle - getting to orbit is easy, but
how would you generate the delta-V to end up somewhere else?  (If memory
serves, Space 1889 liftwood ships had ether sails to generate this
propulsive force, and I think there was some handwaving somewhere so
journeys to Mars et al took weeks and months, not years.)

I suppose you could set it up as 'dial a gravity field' i.e. you setup
repulsion against whatever gravity source you want, and so you could
probably find something aligned to whatever vector you want,
but this starts to get real handwaving even for handwaving.  :)

JGH

On 2017-11-08 03:54, Hugh Fisher wrote:
> 
> I am doing some world building for a space game setting, and want to
run an 
> idea past people.
> 
> My setting is not too distant future. I want easy surface to orbit
launch to 
> explain why people are in space, which means using up a lot of energy
on each 
> launch.
> 
> BUT once in space I want engines to be rather limited, so it isn't
easy to, 
> say, divert asteroids into planets.
> 
> My idea is counter gravity, an updated version of HG Wells Cavorite,
or the 
> liftwood in Space 1889. Not artificial gravity, but some kind of field
that 
> INSERT HANDWAVING HERE creates an equal and opposite thrust reaction.
So 
> within the gravity of a planet you get lots of thrust, near an
asteroid very 
> little, and from a spaceship hull something only measurable in
nanometres per 
> hour.
> 
> What am I missing? Would this make space travel economical? What else
would it 
> be good for?
> 

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