FlyWheel Battery

>
>>> Rotational Kinetic Energy = 0.5(0.5 * Mass * radius^2)*angular
>>> velocity^2
>>>
>>> Let's assume a flywheel operates at 3,000 r.p.m.
>>> Let's assume a flywheel radius of 1 meter.
>>>
>
> You can see from the equation that you get a lot from faster rotation
> (it's squared). I believe (and I could easily be wrong) that current
> fly wheel technology runs around 100,000 RPM or faster (anyone know
> the right answer?). If this number is about right then the necessary
> mass of the flywheel is much less.
>

Space tourism could be our ticket to the stars. Save your pennies,
suborbital flights for $100,000 may start in 2005! See
http://www.spaceadventures.com/suborbital for details.

Al Globus
CSC at NASA Ames Research Center
http://www.nas.nasa.gov/~globus/home.html

Views expressed in this email are only my opinions and are not the
position of any organization I'm familiar with.