Meteroids and solar sails - again

From: "Al Globus"
To:
Sent: Monday, May 21, 2001 3:02 PM
Subject: Re: [spacesettlers] Meteroids and solar sails - again

> Very interesting. I don't have the physics background to do the
> calculations. If someone could do them, it would be a great help.
>

I know just the basics of the calculations necessary to that from the page
http://www.sci.kun.nl/hfml/froglev.html , where the Dutch guys working in
diamagnetic levitation explain briefly the physics of the thing. As you can
see, the magnetic gradient necessary for levitation is proportional to
rho*g, where rho is the density of the object and g is the gravity
acceleration. In our problem, "gravity acceleration" would have to be
replaced by solar sail acceleration. What's that? Something around 0.001 g?
Also, carbonaceous condrites have low densities, if I remember correctly, so
I think that the magnetic field needed to grip a meteoroid would be really
low... However, I dont have a damn idea about how to calculate the mass of
the magnetic trap, the energy requirements, and so on...

As for the other kind of mechanism - I've been thinking about it as a
"magnetic carrot" for attracting nickel-iron meteoroids - I tried
desperately to find some reference to an undergrad project that I saw years
ago where the guys could levitate a little iron ball by controlling the
magnetic field generated by the electromagnet above the ball - but I found
nothing! :-(

[snikt]
Lucio Coelho