From: Phillip Atcliffe <Phillip.Atcliffe@u...>
Date: Wed, 30 Aug 2000 16:35:22 +0100 (BST)
Subject: Re: [OT] Alderson Drive
> On Wed, 30 Aug 2000 11:07:50 -0400 Jerry Han <jhan1@home.com> wrote: > I just got an email from somebody who was looking for information on Yes, it's true. Dan Alderson worked (works?) at JPL (I think) and he worked out a pseudo-scientific basis on which the Alderson drive is based. It requires the existence of a fifth fundamental force and a "parallel" universe which has rather different properties to ours -- the precise details escape me at present, but see below. > If so, does anybody have any information pointers on the web? < No web links or anything like that, but Niven and Pournelle once wrote an article for Galaxy which described the work behind a lot of the stuff in "A Mote in God's Eye", and what the characteristics of the Drive (which were vital to the story) were mentioned there. Only qualitative description, though -- I gather that Alderson worked out a lot of stuff using some fairly complex equations, but they were only mentioned, not quoted. I could scan that bit of the article if your mate (or anyone else) is interested. In addition, a bit more can be found in the sequel to Mote, "The Gripping Hand"/"The Moat Around Murcheson's Eye", in which certain astrophysical aspects of the Drive are important. It was also fun to find that the INSS MacArthur was based on a model kit -- and I had the kit! Shame it got left behind when I moved to the UK. Phil, who made a couple of "Imperial" starships not unlike the Mac from bits of ESU and NAC ships put together.