Re: Nuclear Isomer Decay: A Possibility for Breakthrough Space

[Dick King <king@reasoning.com>]

 >Date: Wed, 31 Mar 1999 08:10:04 -0700
 >From: Mike McNaughton <mcnaught@lanl.gov>
 >To: radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu
 >Subject: Re: Nuclear Isomer Decay: A Possibility for Breakthrough Space
 >Message-ID: <v04020a00b327e831d70f@[128.165.138.34]>
 >
 >>The below fascinating abstract is about inducing gamma decay as a deep space
 >>propulsion method.
 >>Can anyone explain:
 >>    How can isomeric transition be triggered?
 >>    How can the resulting gamma rays be made to go in one direction so as to
 >>produce propulsion. I thought the direction of gammas must be isotropic.
 >
 >In a magnetic field, the gamma emission from beta decay is not exactly
 >isotropic. However, this is very far from becoming a practical method of
 >directing the gammas. There is no known method of directing the gammas that
 >is likely to become practical within the next 100 years.

However, stimulated emission photons travel in the same direction as the
stimulating photons, to an extremely high degree of precision.  You just need
to place the stimulation source at the front of the engine.

-dk
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