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From: J.JPM@LOTS-B (Jim McGrath)
Newsgroups: net.space
Subject: Orbital Accelerator Momentum loss
Message-ID: <12173196735.103.J.JPM@LOTS-B>
Date: Mon, 6-Jan-86 20:26:50 EST
Article-I.D.: LOTS-B.12173196735.103.J.JPM
Posted: Mon Jan  6 20:26:50 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 8-Jan-86 06:05:44 EST
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Organization: The ARPA Internet
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I remember reading an article that stated that such a loss would not
be a problem.  Basically, instead of using mass from higher orbits to
accelerator the accelerator (which is not practical in the short
term), one would probably use either reaction motors or a dymano
effect (as the accelerator passes through the earth's magnetic field,
it acts as a generator/motor - you can increase momentum by putting
power into the field, get energy by losing momentum).

However, I forget the numbers involved (i.e. how much reaction mass,
or how much power (that is, solar cells) would be required).


Jim
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