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Ember, issue 31, 1947
Page 2
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Stanley on atomic drive continued: (If you will remember, Stanley had just reached an estimate of 10,000 miles per second for the velocity of the disintegration products between two masses below critical mass, one a focussed cylinder, the other a 'doughnut'; now on with the story:) "For simplicity, we suppose the rocket is initially motionless out in space, with no air resistance and no gravitational field to bother with.Since we have such a high exhaust velocity to play with, let's be ambitious and assume that we will disintegrate enough U-235 in the power plant to give the rocket a velocity of 100 miles per second. First we'll want to know how much mass must be ejected in the form of fission fragments at 10,000 mps. To find this, we use the well-known exponential or 'Rocket' equation M0/Mr=exp (Vr/VE) in which M0 and Mr is its mass when it has reached the velocity Vr. VE is the exhaust velocity. We have given VE = 10,000 mps and Vr = 100 mps whence the rocket equation gives us the 'mass ratio': M0/Mr = 0.01. This means that to impart a velocity of 100mps to a 100-lb rocket, for example, we would only have to shoot off one pound of fission fragments at 10,000mps. On the surface, this seems extremely favorable; it is certainly a very modest fuel consumption, as compared with a rocket burning chemical fuels, e.g. V-2 with a mass ratio of 3.21 for the attainment of a vastly lower Vr. There are, however, some jokers to this proposition which we ought to consider before we plan on taking off for the moon along with Farnsworth and company. ((To be continued next issue when the jokers are discussed)) Rem-EMBER #2 by Ben Singer Printed Zines, Past, Present, & Future. . . Through the able eyes of Sam Moskowitz, many of you have seen the struggles, the rewards of early fandom. San's 'The Immortal Storm', currently appearing in Fantasy Commentator, has taken you back to the days of the printed zine, to the days of SF Correspondent, SF Fan, and back further yet to Fantasy Magazine's days of glory. Things of the past, are these titles;nor are there now printed magazines to take their place. All fanzines now are either mimeo'd, hecto'd, or Ditto'd. The advantages of a printed zine are obvious. I have an idea for a printed zine that I believe could be made to pay for itself. It would be jointly sponsored by N3F and any interested fen. It would have 28 pages; would sell for 10 or 15 cents. Featuring the best names of Fandom, several thousand copies could be printed. The ads would pay a good share of the costs. It could even become the N3F official organ. Random Notes Anyone interested in the proposed zine at the left, write Singer at 3242 Monterey, Detroit 6, Michigan.... Jack Speer asks: "Wouldn't it be nicer to abbreviate Bob Stein'sname some other way?" !!....Heroldo de Esperanto for 15 Dec 46 had an absorbing article translated from Narodni Obroda on Dr. A. Slotin, first freewill martyr of atomic radiation death in the interest of science - 4E....Tucker's 1946 Fanzine Index is almost ready to mail. In the same envelope with it will be the 5th issue of the Bloomington News-Letter. This index is free, and as long as a copy remains, it may be had for the asking.-BT....Joquel's excellent weekly review of atomic news The Atomic Age is definitely folded, as well as its proposed quarterly successor, Atomic World.-AJ....Edgar Allan Poe's eerie psychological thriller, 'The Cask of Amontillado' has been recorded by Decca on 4 ten-inch discs. Principle voice is that of movies' sinister Fat Man, Sydney Greenstreet.-Fja....#50 of Ackerman's VOM will be the last - FNS....James Blish manages VAPA.-FNS.
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Stanley on atomic drive continued: (If you will remember, Stanley had just reached an estimate of 10,000 miles per second for the velocity of the disintegration products between two masses below critical mass, one a focussed cylinder, the other a 'doughnut'; now on with the story:) "For simplicity, we suppose the rocket is initially motionless out in space, with no air resistance and no gravitational field to bother with.Since we have such a high exhaust velocity to play with, let's be ambitious and assume that we will disintegrate enough U-235 in the power plant to give the rocket a velocity of 100 miles per second. First we'll want to know how much mass must be ejected in the form of fission fragments at 10,000 mps. To find this, we use the well-known exponential or 'Rocket' equation M0/Mr=exp (Vr/VE) in which M0 and Mr is its mass when it has reached the velocity Vr. VE is the exhaust velocity. We have given VE = 10,000 mps and Vr = 100 mps whence the rocket equation gives us the 'mass ratio': M0/Mr = 0.01. This means that to impart a velocity of 100mps to a 100-lb rocket, for example, we would only have to shoot off one pound of fission fragments at 10,000mps. On the surface, this seems extremely favorable; it is certainly a very modest fuel consumption, as compared with a rocket burning chemical fuels, e.g. V-2 with a mass ratio of 3.21 for the attainment of a vastly lower Vr. There are, however, some jokers to this proposition which we ought to consider before we plan on taking off for the moon along with Farnsworth and company. ((To be continued next issue when the jokers are discussed)) Rem-EMBER #2 by Ben Singer Printed Zines, Past, Present, & Future. . . Through the able eyes of Sam Moskowitz, many of you have seen the struggles, the rewards of early fandom. San's 'The Immortal Storm', currently appearing in Fantasy Commentator, has taken you back to the days of the printed zine, to the days of SF Correspondent, SF Fan, and back further yet to Fantasy Magazine's days of glory. Things of the past, are these titles;nor are there now printed magazines to take their place. All fanzines now are either mimeo'd, hecto'd, or Ditto'd. The advantages of a printed zine are obvious. I have an idea for a printed zine that I believe could be made to pay for itself. It would be jointly sponsored by N3F and any interested fen. It would have 28 pages; would sell for 10 or 15 cents. Featuring the best names of Fandom, several thousand copies could be printed. The ads would pay a good share of the costs. It could even become the N3F official organ. Random Notes Anyone interested in the proposed zine at the left, write Singer at 3242 Monterey, Detroit 6, Michigan.... Jack Speer asks: "Wouldn't it be nicer to abbreviate Bob Stein'sname some other way?" !!....Heroldo de Esperanto for 15 Dec 46 had an absorbing article translated from Narodni Obroda on Dr. A. Slotin, first freewill martyr of atomic radiation death in the interest of science - 4E....Tucker's 1946 Fanzine Index is almost ready to mail. In the same envelope with it will be the 5th issue of the Bloomington News-Letter. This index is free, and as long as a copy remains, it may be had for the asking.-BT....Joquel's excellent weekly review of atomic news The Atomic Age is definitely folded, as well as its proposed quarterly successor, Atomic World.-AJ....Edgar Allan Poe's eerie psychological thriller, 'The Cask of Amontillado' has been recorded by Decca on 4 ten-inch discs. Principle voice is that of movies' sinister Fat Man, Sydney Greenstreet.-Fja....#50 of Ackerman's VOM will be the last - FNS....James Blish manages VAPA.-FNS.
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