Starquake.pdf

stage' for our lander. We can store the energy we need on the mass so we don't have to carry it on the
lander, then transfer the energy to the lander through some kind of launcher."
"Are you thinking of a launcher like a jump loop?" asked Steel-Slicer.
"They are too long to fit on the mass," said Cliff-Web. "I was thinking of a large gravity catapult sitting on
the mass. We would somehow put the mass in an elliptical orbit around Egg that would take it down
almost to the surface. Just at periapsis, the gravity catapult would launch the landing vehicle in the
direction opposite to the orbital trajectory and leave the lander stopped, stationary, a few meters above
the surface."
"It would be an easy landing from there!" said Steel-Slicer. "We could land a crew of engineers and then
build our own gravity catapult so the rest of us could come down."
"I was hoping to get two berries off a singleberry bush," Cliff-Web said. "I think we can design things so
that our landeris the gravity catapult. Saves time."
"You can't fly a gravity catapult! A gravity catapult only generates gravity forces when the ultra-dense
mass currents are increasing. How are you going to drive the pumps? A long power line back to the
mass?"
"You also get gravity forces when the mass currents are decreasing," Cliff-Web said. "But you shouldn't
really think about the changes in the mass currents. What really makes the gravity field is the increase or
decrease of the gravitomagnetic field inside the torus. I think we can design a gravity catapult that
requires no outside power to operate. It will have changes in the fields without changing the speed of the
mass currents, just their direction. In fact, this sounds like a good project for my new gravitational
engineering seminar." He went off to meet his class.
10:13:26 GMT TUESDAY 21 JUNE2050
"It is time for the team reports again, class," said Cliff-Web. "How is the design for the lander coming?
Who is Team Leader for the lander?"
One of the students in the back spoke up. "The basic design is finished. We will have two long, thin
multi-channel tubes that wind around the torus in multiple layers to make the interior field more uniform.
The lander will take off with one tube empty and the other fully charged with high speed black-hole dust
that will produce a gravitomagnetic field at maximum strength counterclockwise. Then when we want
gravity repul-
sion force we use a diverter valve to switch some of the mass current from the channels in the first tube
into the second tube, but going in the opposite direction. The reverse current will cancel some of the
gravitomagnetic field inside, which is equivalent to decreasing its strength. The decreasing gravitomagnetic
field will make a gravity repulsor field that will keep the lander levitated above Egg."
"What is the hover time?" Cliff-Web asked.
"Only three methturns, so far," the Lander Team Leader replied. "Now that we have the basic design,