You are evil On 2006-Jul 14, at 08:31hrs AM, Russell McMahon wrote: Utterly Stunning! A must read for engineers (or others) who want to keep their minds supple. I'm copying this to a few people who may think they have no interest in the subject. If you receive this directly then it means that I think that you MAY find it of interest. I may be wrong :-). Iain should definitely read the space war page. http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/index.html Atomic Rocketships of the Space Patrol ... is what they call the web page so I do it the honour of using the same name. But what it really is in an utterly amazing treatise, or rather a disparate collection of treatises (should such term exist) covering, at face value, all aspects of what it would take to build real genuine spacecraft in a distant future. Still with me? OK. Along the way it is a superb lesson in thinking - it shows that the simplistic images that we (probably) have are subject to constraints and require assumptions which we have probably never started to think of. Even if rockets hold no great interest for you, this web site may. If they do then don't look until you have a spare month. You have been warned. Main page http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/rocket3t.html The page on interplanetary combat and space war is a marvel in its own right. Along the way to an appreciation of some practical realities you find out why (perhaps) a sea borne destroyer is so named. By quoting segments from SciFi stories of various ages he illustrates some of the points he's making and shows there have been some clear thinking writers out there. How clear thinking we hope we'll never find out. http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/rocket3t.html I'm going to exit the site now without looking at anything else, or I risk being here till dawn. Right now. ! Maybe if I just look at ... RM -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist Gus S Calabrese Denver, CO 720 222 1309 303 908 7716 cell I allow everything with "spamcode2006" in the subject or text to pass my spam filters -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist