Interstellar Cyclers
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| Date |
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10.5.2000 |
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| Submitted by |
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Karl Schroeder |
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| Title |
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Interstellar Cyclers |
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| Source |
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Schroeder, Karl, ""Halo"", Tor Books,Northern Suns, the New Anthology of Canadian Science Fiction , ( ) Page Nr. 134-152. |
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| Context |
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It seems impractical to have to spend a very large amount of energy to accelerate a starship to some percentage of lightspeed, only to have to decelerate it again at its destination. The interstellar cycler concept simply proposes that the starship itself should never be decelerated once brought up to speed. It should use technologies such as Lorentz Force Turning or a laser-sail assisted course correction to change its trajectory to pass by a new destination, while only cargo is offloaded/ uploaded by means of laser/particle beam sails. Since over many lightyears the starship may describe a rough circle, it is referred to in the story as an "interstellar cycler", in analogy with Buzz Aldrin's planetary cyclers. |
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| Description |
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In "Halo", interstellar cyclers are used to connect a group of brown dwarfs residing in interstellar space. Each brown dwarf-based civilization has the capability of decelerating small cargos from near-lightspeed, and accelerating same to intercept passing cyclers. None by itself has the economic power to create single-use starships such as those proposed today. By banding together, spending acceleration energy only on individual cargos, and leaving the life-support system of the cycler travelling at relativistic velocities, they are able to sustain a "rapid transit" system that each would be individually incapable of fielding. The use of brown dwarfs is significant in that their current projected density in interstellar space permits more stops "per lightyear" than conventional starship designs. Thus the cyclers do have to travel four to eight lightyears between "stops", but somewhere between 1 and 4. With more "stops", the energy for the very large circular course change assumed in the story decreases for each "stop". |
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| Comments |
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This concept turns on the assumption that it requires less energy to do course changes of 10-90 degrees from point to point on a roughly circular course with a relativistic starship, than to accelerate/decelerate it completely at each stop. This assumption has not been mathematically tested. Long-term survival of the starship at such speeds is also assumed; this assumption also needs to be tested. |
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| Feasibility |
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Not able to Judge |
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| Keywords |
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lorentz force turning , relativistic velocity , starships |
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