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From: dietz@SLB-DOLL.CSNET (Paul Dietz)
Newsgroups: net.space
Subject: Re: next generation shuttle: electrically assisted
Message-ID: <8602232211.AA22855@s1-b.arpa>
Date: Sun, 23-Feb-86 16:14:46 EST
Article-I.D.: s1-b.8602232211.AA22855
Posted: Sun Feb 23 16:14:46 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 26-Feb-86 06:16:37 EST
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The ARPA Internet
Lines: 17

>     The electrically-assisted shuttle launch was
>an idea for a lead-in to true mass drivers.  Most of the mass driver
>ideas I saw four or five years ago (I haven't kept up) required
>huge amounts of power in one or two seconds, to sustain hundreds
>of g's to get into orbit.  This stretches out the
>power need to almost a minute, and lowers the g's to something
>that could launch almost any payload, including people.

People can be launched at hundreds or thousands of g's if they
are immersed in a fluid of the same density as the body.  The fluid
must permeate the lungs to prevent internal damage.  Fortunately,
fluids such as perfluorocarbons can dissolve large amounts of oxygen,
so you don't suffocate.  Another idea is to use highly compressed
xenon gas (it's expensive, though).  Accelerations are ultimately limited
by density differences between body tissues (one's bones will sink
through one's body).  [The perfluorocarbon idea was used in "The Forever
War."]