Space Propulsion by alpha particle emission. This is an excerpt from the panel "Spaceships on the Cheap," which was part of Conversion Con 2006. Calgary, Alberta. Left to right, Karl Johanson, unknown, Blair Peterson, Larry Niven and unknown. The idea is to use alpha particles to propel a thin sheet of paper in space. My friend Phillip Freeman did a back-of-the-envelope calculation, suggesting that the alpha particles could get the paper to solar escape velocity within one half-life of the alpha-emitting isotope. More details of this idea are in an article in issue 16 of Neo-opsis Science Fiction Magazine. http://www.neo-opsis.ca
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