Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!oliveb!amdahl!drivax!macleod
From: macleod@drivax.UUCP (MacLeod)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Planning a trip to Proxima Centauri
Message-ID: <4441@drivax.UUCP>
Date: 27 Mar 89 20:26:49 GMT
Reply-To: macleod@drivax.UUCP (MacLeod)
Lines: 20

Henry Spencer posts:

:Let us all be very cautious about this; while it sounds promising, there
:have been major scientific false alarms before.  (For example, there were
:a number of high-temperature-superconductor false alarms before Bednorz
:and Muller hit the jackpot -- this was one reason why their report was
:slow to be accepted.)

Caution is fine, but I'm too excited to keep still.  Given the energy
density figures from preliminary reports, how much of a scale-up
will it take for a constant-boost ship capable of going to Proxima
Centauri?  Assume refueling there.

Yeah, yeah, I know, I'm guilty of the cardinal sin of THINKING BIG
again...

I vote for calling it PROMETHEUS.


Michael Sloan MacLeod   (amdahl!drivax!macleod)