Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
"in 1974 I experienced an invasion of my mind by a transcendentally rational mind, as if I had been insane all my life and suddenly I had become sane."
- Philip K. Dick
 |
| Bussard Ramjet | ||
| Propulsion method that scoops hydrogen atoms from space via electromagnetic fields. |
Niven makes good use of this real-life invention in the novel. It is a propulsion method that scoops hydrogen atoms from space via electromagnetic fields, then directs them into a fusion chamber and expels them out the back for thrust.
The emissions of a ramscoop tend to be high-energy hydrogen and helium, lithium radicals, borates, and lithium hydride, producing a purplish flame.
The magnetic field of a Ramscoop is considered to be lethal to living organisms.
| The starships were Bussard ramjets. They caught interstellar hydrogen in immaterial nets of electromagnetic force, compressed and guided it into a ring of pinched force fields, and there burned it in fusion fire. Potenially there was no limit at all on the speed of a Bussard ramjet. The ships were enormously powerful, enormously complex, enormously expensive. |
| From A World Out of Time,
by Larry Niven. Published by Random House in 1976 Additional resources -
|
The Bussard ramjet design was originally proposed in 1960 by physicist Robert W. Bussard. Among the problems with the original design are
For a look at a propulsion system using a more tenuous fuel source, see light sail, from Sail 25, by Jack Vance.
Be sure to take a look at the entry for ram field, an extension on this idea from Niven's earlier novel Protector.
Comment/Join this discussion ( 1 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from A World Out of Time
More Ideas
and Technology by Larry Niven
Tech news articles related to A World Out of Time
Tech news articles related to works by Larry Niven
| New Laser Space Debris Clearing More Subtle Than Clarke's |
| Proposal To Use Lasers To Analyze Asteroids |
| Juno Gets Close To Jupiter, Fiction Gets Closer! |
| NASA Submarine For Titan |
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a
quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add
it here.
| <Previous | Next> |
|
|
|
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
|
'Playfully, Nanny caught Bobby's arm with her grapple and drew him to her.'
'So we took pictures of Guzub making a Three Planets...'
'People are used to android robots... They'll be scared of your unhuman-looking contraptions...'
'The old woman laid her wire-knitting aside and fixed them with the bug-eyed, opaque gape...'
'The scope was adjusted to generate... an image of the lower section of the book.'
