Arthur C Clarke's space ships -- propulsion discussion

[HyperTechno]

I've read Sir Arthur C Clerk's space odyssey series and curious of the propulsion technologies used in those ships. Ships like Universe and Galaxy of space odyssey 2061 use just water. The fiction speaks of "muon propulsion" too. The main spacecraft s that we see in his 'space odyssey' series are, Discovery(2001),galaxy & universe (2061), and Goliath (3001). I like to have a discussion on the propulsion technologies used in these ships and see how close to reality they are...

 

[Noisy Rhysling]

FYI, it's "Clark".

 

[Vanadium 50]

Well, actually, it's "Clarke".

 

[newjerseyrunner]

This is interesting: http://www.space.com/33537- spacecraft -of-arthur-c-clarke-stephen-baxter.html

That says that in Space Odyssey the ship was an fusion rocket, which is a perfectly reasonable technology. It was something that NASA was legitimately looking at and I think even had a prototype (at very least I know they had detailed plans.)

I don't see why muons would ever be used in propulsion. If you pushed it out an electromagnetic nozzle, it'd give you more kick than an electron, but it'd be nothing compared to the atomic nuclei that current ion engines produce. Not to mention that muons are not stable.

 

[Noisy Rhysling]

Well, actually, it's "Clarke".

If I had put the E on the end you wouldn't have had something to post. :)

 

[Andy SV]

How long does it need to last. It only has to last long enough to react with the thruster and get far enough away from the ship to not mutate it's bum