Gentlefolk,
<< ...friction with interstellar matter >>
Theres not enough of it for any meaningful friction or force. Even over the
area of a proposed Bussard ram scoop, the drag is but a few newtons. You'll
get spallation and erosion, but no meaningful force even at fairly high
Lorentz factors.
Also, ice, at cryogenic temperatures, is very strong in compression.
Hmmm. If H2O2 ice is similar, one could (in principle) freeze the HTP hard,
vacuum-wrap a mylar balloon over the icicle, and get out of the lower
atmosphere that way. Eventually, the "tank" woud expand like a balloon as
the peroxide melts and develops vapor pressure, but then pressure would carry
the load and you'd be out of the drag regime so the expansion of the tank
wouldn't matter. Let's see, at a gram per square meter, an HTP mylar
balloon tank ten meters tall and three meters in circumference would weigh 30
grams. That's a nice mass fraction ;-).
--Best, Gerald
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