3 ms·
To put it another way, my reading of the article is that it only provides an acceleration vector directly away from the nearest star. That can be used for prop
by ethbro 9y ago
To put it another way, my reading of the article is that it only provides an acceleration vector directly away from the nearest star.
That can be used for propellant-massless acceleration (leaving solar system) and deceleration (entering solar system), but cannot power any other maneuvers.
(But of course auxiliary drives of a different type could)
- mLuby 9y agoAs I understand it, that's because the field is spherical. If you place a sphere in a river it can only go straight downstream. However if you combine two or more spheres in a line and angle that line with respect to the flow, it's possible to move diagonally downstream to reach either shore.
- ethbro 9y agoTrue, but the magnitude of any locally-tangential component to a spacecraft would be relative to the angular difference in the spheres' locations, relative to the nearest star. No? Which is to say, impractical for any substantial radius from the solar system's center.
- mLuby 9y agoRight, it wouldn't exactly turn on a dime. :D Still, being able to turn at all dramatically increases the usefulness of the drive.