In 1983 “Science Digest” ran an article that 13-year-old me lost his tiny little mind over. Illustrated by Rick Sternbach, designer of, among other Star Trek vehicles and artifacts, the USS Voyager, it described a series of possible means of interstellar travel. While the physics and engineering of some of them have proven dodgy in the years since (the Bussard ramjet has serious problems with the proposed magnetic fiend, the Enzmann starship has turned out to not be as well thought out as many had assumed, etc.), it remains a tantalizing glimpse of what might be. The article has been scanned in full color and made available to APR Patrons/subscribers at the above-$10 level.
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Don Davis and Rick Sternbach worked with Doc Enzmann on the design of the Enzmann Starship in the early 1970’s. I spoke to them both when working on the JBIS review of the Enzmann Starship. Doc E originally imagined deuterium ice-balls wrapped in insulation would be enough, but Rick advised him that frozen deuterium is a very soft ice and would flow under thrust so spherical tanks would be required. The drive efficiency of the Enzmann Starship is nowhere near as high as Harry Stine’s “Analog” popularisation imagined – Harry quoted 0.3 c for a cruising speed, but more realistically it’d be closer to 0.1 c. I tracked down several discussions of the idea by SF writers in the late 60’s and early 70’s, but Doc E never formally published detailed work on it. I almost got to meet him in 2020, but COVID killed that idea and he died almost age 100.