space colonies around the gas giants

I think a magsail could provide flare shielding, as well as propulsion for
docking with an Aldrin cycler. The cycler could then give you the massive
cosmic ray protection you need while you cruise, and then you could leave
and reactivate the magsail for the insertion into Mars orbit.

One nice thing about magsails in cis martian space is that there's no
ionosphere, so you can use them until you get quite close to the
atmosphere; whereas they only work outside GEO near to the Earth.

I really should publish my magsail design sometime. Does anyone know of a
good simulation of the solar wind anywhere?

On 4 October 2014 15:05, Joe Strout joe@... [spacesettlers] <
spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

> On 10/4/14 5:29 AM, sailorbarsoom@... [spacesettlers] wrote:
>
> > Habitats and bases on planets and moons can of course pile on cheap dirt
> > shielding, but I think deep space ships are going to have to find
> > another way. Electromagnetic shielding perhaps?
>
> Yes, that's a good point. EM shielding isn't a very mature technology
> yet, but it probably will be one day. And it doesn't kick you around
> with the rocket equation the way piling on mass does.
>
> > Deep space ships don't have to accelerate at 3 Gs, or even 1 G. So they
> > get to use highly efficient low-thrust stuff like ion engines or light
> > sails. Any heavy shielding still complicates stuff, but there are
> > advantages too.
>
> Yeah, I recently looked into what it would take to make a ship
> accelerate at 1G halfway to Mars (and then decelerate the same way
> back). It was pretty bleak, even assuming fusion-rocket-level ISPs.
> We'll probably have to content ourselves with much lower acceleration
> for the next few centuries at least.
>
> Best,
> - Joe
>
> Posted by: Joe Strout
>
> Yahoo Groups Links
>

--
-Ian Woollard

One nice thing about magsails in cis martian space is that there's no ionosphere, so you can use them until you get quite close to the atmosphere; whereas they only work outside GEO near to the Earth.
I really should publish my magsail design sometime. Does anyone know of a good simulation of the solar wind anywhere?
On 4 October 2014 15:05, Joe Strout
joe@...
[spacesettlers]
<
spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com
>
On 10/4/14 5:29 AM,
sailorbarsoom@...
[spacesettlers] wrote:
> Habitats and bases on planets and moons can of course pile on cheap dirt
> shielding, but I think deep space ships are going to have to find
> another way. Electromagnetic shielding perhaps?
Yes, that's a good point. EM shielding isn't a very mature technology
yet, but it probably will be one day. And it doesn't kick you around
with the rocket equation the way piling on mass does.
> Deep space ships don't have to accelerate at 3 Gs, or even 1 G. So they
> get to use highly efficient low-thrust stuff like ion engines or light
> sails. Any heavy shielding still complicates stuff, but there are
> advantages too.
Yeah, I recently looked into what it would take to make a ship
accelerate at 1G halfway to Mars (and then decelerate the same way
back). It was pretty bleak, even assuming fusion-rocket-level ISPs.
We'll probably have to content ourselves with much lower acceleration
for the next few centuries at least.
Best,
- Joe
Posted by: Joe Strout
joe@...
>
Yahoo Groups Links

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