Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!kcarroll From: kcarroll@utzoo.UUCP (Kieran A. Carroll) Newsgroups: net.space Subject: Re: Orbital Artillery Message-ID: <3562@utzoo.UUCP> Date: Mon, 20-Feb-84 15:12:13 EST Article-I.D.: utzoo.3562 Posted: Mon Feb 20 15:12:13 1984 Date-Received: Mon, 20-Feb-84 15:12:13 EST References: <16648@sri-arpa.UUCP> Organization: U of Toronto Zoology Lines: 20 * Has anyone else on the net, upon hearing O'Neill's idea for using mass-drivers throwing away tiny pellets of reaction mass ( say little buckets of lunar dirt) as a high-efficiency rocket-engine, had the thought, -Kieran A. Carroll ...decvax!utzoo!kcarroll "Good Lord, who wants to fill the solar system up with billions more meteorites, especially around what will eventually be a crowded shipping region, the earth-moon region? Won'rt the probability of hulling your ship increase dramatically?" Well, if so, I've just thought of the solution to this problem. Just accelerate your reaction-mass to greater than solar-escape velocity, and they'll go away and never come back. If they hit a planet with an atmosphere, they'll burn up. All you'll have to be careful of is that you don't aim your exhaust stream through a high-traffic area. Perhaps one of the "rules of the road" of the future will be that you aren't to point your exhaust directly towards the earth ( for fear of hitting low-orbit satellites), or towards the moon ( so as not to hit the mining base that sends up the fuel that you're using).