From: g_d_pusch_remove_underscores@xnet.com   
      
   harrymurphy1@bigmailbox.net writes:   
      
   > Funny thing is that Werner Von Brown was the one who proposed this ion   
   > engine more than 50 years ago. What was it with these Germans --   
      
   Conceptually, nearly all rocket engines are _EXTREMELY_ simple devices,   
   involving no physics discovered after WW2. The devil has been in the   
   _PRACTICAL ENGINEERING DETAILS_, not the concepts.   
      
      
   > Einstein and Von Brown. Too bad they didn't team up.   
      
   It is unlikely that they would have accomplished much more together   
   than they accomplished separately. Einstein was a theoretical physicist,   
   not an engineer, and as I noted earlier, the problem was not with the   
   theory, but with the practical engineering.   
      
      
   > Maybe together they could have put together a craft that approached   
   > the speed of light.   
      
   Highly unlikely. They would have been stopped by the same reason we are:   
   Lack of a sufficient power source. Even matter/antimatter power maxes out   
   around 80% of lightspeed, unless you use truly ridiculous amounts of it !!!   
      
      
   -- Gordon D. Pusch   
      
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