Would consider swap for an anti-gravity machine.
Stangely enough, an
anti-grav machine (AGM) might be more feasible than popping back to visit the ancestors and tossing some tea into the harbor. Research has shown that Earth's gravity is reduced in the vicinity of a rapidly-spinning disc. The postulation is to create a 'flywheel' of novel form; thin at the perifery and thick at the hub, and of a geometrically progressive contour such that the stress due to centripetal force is equal throughout the disc section. Mounted in very low friction bearings, and immaculately balanced to eliminate shock loads, vibration and fatigue failure, the disc runs in a casing
in vacuo to reduce friction to a minimum. The rpm required is phenomenal, and as yet the strongest known materials, ( composites at say 800,000 psi ) would fail at a tiny percentage of any useful reduction in G,
but thats just an engineering problem!
Equipped with a compact multi-disc, ( for steering and manoevering), back-pack version, running on NiCads, you could make a fortune changing church light bulbs!!
Downside? A disc failure takes out several city blocks...
Alan
[This message has been edited by Alan Belson (edited 10-24-2005).]
