Subject:
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Re: Wings [was: Re: Building big]
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.space, lugnet.loc.au
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Date:
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Wed, 20 Jun 2001 19:22:28 GMT
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Viewed:
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7261 times
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David Drew writes:
> On 20/6/01 5:54 AM, "William R Ward" <bill@wards.net> wrote:
>
> > Actually, this is false. Space is a vacuum - there is no air, only a
> > few stray molecules of gas or cosmic dust. As a result, there is no
> > friction and thus no need for wings or streamlined shapes on space
> > craft. Also, there is very little gravitational pull, so the lifting
> > power of wings is useless.
>
> Actually, if you're travelling at near-light velocities, the density of the
> interstellar medium becomes high enough (especially within solar systems, so
> I guess that would be intrastellar medium) that a streamlined shaped would
> become essential. Even then, there would be both heavy erosion of whatever
> impact-shielding you have, and heavy drag on the ship.
That may be true, but I don't think anyone knows for sure, because we
haven't tried going that fast yet. My spacecraft follow a very "hard
SF" policy - no FTL travel, no artificial gravity, etc. But that's
not to say that it's the only way...
--Bill.
--
William R Ward bill@wards.net http://www.wards.net/~bill/
(formerly known as hermit@bayview.com)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Life is too important to take seriously.
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Wings [was: Re: Building big]
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| (...) There has existed artificial gravity for years in the space programs, most notably our space program, all over the world. These same companies are working with contractors to develop newer types of engines such as an ion propulsion system for (...) (23 years ago, 21-Jun-01, to lugnet.space, lugnet.loc.au)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Wings [was: Re: Building big]
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| (...) Actually, if you're travelling at near-light velocities, the density of the interstellar medium becomes high enough (especially within solar systems, so I guess that would be intrastellar medium) that a streamlined shaped would become (...) (23 years ago, 20-Jun-01, to lugnet.space, lugnet.loc.au)
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