Comments on: The National Space Society – Roadmap to Space Settlement http://www.sciscoop.com/2003-7-7-15163-33632.html Scooping up science news and dropping it on your desk Thu, 18 Mar 2010 16:03:57 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: momocrome http://www.sciscoop.com/2003-7-7-15163-33632.html/comment-page-1#comment-3866 momocrome Tue, 08 Jul 2003 15:46:26 +0000 http://localhost/~arielschwartz/wordpress/sciscoop/?p=565#comment-3866 The cynic in me says that suppression of commonplace civilian or commercial space travel will be a necessity for any nation with national security concerns, at least suppressed near Earth (and Earth's path through the solar system) anywhere within delta-z of a good 'ol rock-dropping... <br><br> On the other hand, an obvious solution to the radiation exposure incurred during interplanetary flight is the <a href="http://www.geophys.washington.edu/Space/SpaceModel/M2P2/">m2p2 drive</a>. It is basically a miniature magnetic field, currently considered a drive technology that acts as a solar sail. The drawback of the drive: it scales inefficiently as you increase the mass of a vehicle. But if it were simply used in conjunction with traditional chemical thrust or ion drives, it would serve as an excellent radiation shield with the added benefit of shaving mass from the vehicle by dropping a lot of the solid shielding. The
cynic in me says that suppression of commonplace civilian or commercial
space travel will be a necessity for any nation with national security
concerns, at least suppressed near Earth (and Earth’s path through the
solar system) anywhere within delta-z of a good ‘ol rock-dropping…

On the other hand, an obvious solution to the radiation exposure incurred during interplanetary flight is the m2p2 drive.
It is basically a miniature magnetic field, currently considered a
drive technology that acts as a solar sail. The drawback of the drive:
it scales inefficiently as you increase the mass of a vehicle. But if
it were simply used in conjunction with traditional chemical thrust or
ion drives, it would serve as an excellent radiation shield with the
added benefit of shaving mass from the vehicle by dropping a lot of the
solid shielding.

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