From: gossg@gossg.org   
      
   In one of the Ringworld novels, Either Louis or someone explaining to   
   Louis points out the truly humungeous amount of hydrogen that would   
   have been consumed spinning up the artifact.   
      
   Bussard Ramjets are canon in this series, and were used by the   
   builders of the Ringworld.  So you have a humungeous supply of   
   hydrogen in the solar wind.   
      
   You've got the rudiments of a transport system along one rim wall.   
   OK, you build a fleet of bussard ramjet locomotives, and use the   
   transport system to bring them up to Bussard speed.  After a while,   
   you're using much of the "linear" accelerator's applied force to   
   circularize the "orbit" of each locomotive.  Once you ignite the   
   ramjet using solar wind, the locomotive can now pull on each transport   
   system impeller rather than be pushed by it.  We've got   
   superconductors, so the brief exposure to fusion heat in the impeller   
   ring can be bled away without having to stutter the drive, as was my   
   first idea.   
      
   Once you're done, you discard all but a few hundred of these   
   locomotives, remount the rest as attitude jets, and you're in action.   
      
   Why are we talking about burning up a planet in a world where Bussard   
   engines work?  You have to accelerate much of that planetload of fuel   
   as deadweight to use in the later portion of the spin-up, in and echo   
   of the classic rocket equation (but in angular momentum and energy   
   rather than linear)   
   --   
   We are geeks.  Resistance is voltage over current.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)