Space Forum / Space Flight / June 2004

Good Morning,
I am finishing up a master's degree in physics, and I am considering what
to do next. I think I should like to learn how to design space vehicles. I
think I have found a program at a major university that suits my needs.

Could anyone point me to some technical documentation on Ion Drive systems?
One thing I'm interested to know is why don't the ion's stick the grid they
are attracted towards? Thanks,
David

Can the space shuttle be converted to a comercial suborbital plane?
It would be carried aloft by a 747 and released high up like the white
knight and the spaceshipone.  The shuttle would use fuel stored in the
cargo bay and carry passengers.  London to Tokyo in 1 hour!

I've been looking at an old post by George William Herbert but i can't
figure out how he reaches his conclusions.
To paraphrase and recap; he says that a nearby nuclear detonation
against a target composed of aluminum would require 100 Megawatts for

I was thinking recently what would be requirements of an ideal
interplanetary spacecraft capable of carrying humans around the solar system
within reasonable times (ie 1 week to 2 years) ignoring the costs of
development. I thought the following would be necessary:

I've been trying to find some gallery shots, schematics, anything really, on
spacesuit designs in the internet.
I've found words and text, replicas for sale, the usual, but I'm curious in
various aspects of suit design, and would love if someone could direct me to

I had an interesting idea today for an artificial island. Instead of
building up the sea bed, why not build a diamond or carbon nanotube wall
that completely encloses an area perhaps 100 square miles or more? The walls
would rise up from the ocean floor and extend perhaps a couple ...

The armchair buckytubes have very low electric
resistance and very high maximum current density
-- about one billion amperes per square centimeter.
If magnetoresistsnce, ohmic heat, and structural

Correction:
There are 3 kinds of buckytubes: armchair, zigzag,
and chiral. Armchair buckytubes are ballistic
conductors. Zigzag and chiral buckytubes are weaker