There would probably be information on this or similar concepts in the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society (JBIS). It has covered space sailing, various relativistic propulsion concepts, relativistic navigation, etc. It's an excellent journal and you should be able to find it at the larger universities in the state, i.e. USU, UofU and BYU. I don't think Weber State carries it.

-----Original Message----- From: Chuck Hards [mailto:chuckhards@yahoo.com] Sent: Tuesday, March 11, 2003 2:42 PM To: utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Project Morpheus (not the software)

Hi James:

It is a concept as old as the atomic bomb. I remember reading science-fiction stories in the sixties that mentioned the concept, as well as a show at Hansen Planetarium in the early '70's that also mentioned it. One of the variations was a "spring-plate" on the back of the ship, in lieu of a "sail", to provide a surface for the explosion to react against. As laughable as the concept sounds, I have met engineers & physicists who insist it is feasable & can be designed to be safe, given a sufficient budget.

As far as any 'Net resources, or modern write-ups, you're on your own.

C.

--- cyanics@xmission.com wrote:

...

All,

First off.... First submission (ye ha).

Secondly, I realize that this is an avenue for astronomy, and not necessarily astrophysics (which this question pertains to)

Does anyone know anything about a "project morpheus"? I ask, because I was watching the Learning Channel a few nights ago, in which the discussion was interstellar or intrastellar travel. One of the possibilities that they discussed was this project morpheus. It used a solar-sail type array, which in its envelope a low-yield nuclear weapon is detonated. The force of the explosion is caught in the sail, and accelerates the spacecraft to speeds (as they said) of "several hundred thousand miles per hour"

While I accept that this velocity is achieveable, I found the technology laughable. So I ask the question. Does anyone know of an avenue which I can follow that might have more information (beyond a basic google search) regarding this project?

Thanks in advance

James Helsby. cyanics@xmission.com

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