"Your imagination has been captured by the roaring rockets from Heinlein's SPACE CADET or the Polaris from TOM CORBETT, SPACE CADET. But are such rockets possible? How does one go about defining the performance of these atomic-powered cruisers?
"This document gives some hints and equations that will allow back-of-the-envelope calculations on such matters. Though horribly simplistic, they are far better than just making up your figures.
"This site was mainly intended for science fiction authors who wanted a little scientific accuracy...."
Warning, real math and physics, and e.g. skepticism of various favorites. E.g. an "antimatter bomb" in space has obvious difficulties (it and what it's hitting get pushed apart) and less obvious (proton-antiproton collisions have less damaging results than you might expect).
1 comment
[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 14.7 ms ] thread"Your imagination has been captured by the roaring rockets from Heinlein's SPACE CADET or the Polaris from TOM CORBETT, SPACE CADET. But are such rockets possible? How does one go about defining the performance of these atomic-powered cruisers?
"This document gives some hints and equations that will allow back-of-the-envelope calculations on such matters. Though horribly simplistic, they are far better than just making up your figures.
"This site was mainly intended for science fiction authors who wanted a little scientific accuracy...."
Warning, real math and physics, and e.g. skepticism of various favorites. E.g. an "antimatter bomb" in space has obvious difficulties (it and what it's hitting get pushed apart) and less obvious (proton-antiproton collisions have less damaging results than you might expect).
Pretty cool.