Tom Goodman wrote in a message to Roy J. Tellason:
RT> Aw,  c'mon,  don't keep us in suspense!  How fast would you have to spin
RT> that sucker?     :-)
 TG>         Actually, I don't know.  The use of the sling and
 TG> the power of the sling was demonstrated with the result of
 TG> penetrating the forehead of a thick-skulled Philistine.
"Thick-skulled Philistine"...
Hm,  who do we know that resembles that?  :-)

 TG>         NASA will be using this same principle for the
 TG> Capizzi (?) 
Cassini.
 TG> spacecraft when it orbits Jupiter(?) a couple of times snaps 
 TG> orbit and then "sling-shots" around the earth. Having used a 
 TG> real sling shot, this maneuver of "sling-shotting" 73 pounds of 
 TG> plutonium around the earth to gain galaxial escape velocity and 
 TG> multiplying speed somehow leaves me very doubtful. 
Orbital mechanics can be very strange,  and also very counter-intuitive.
 TG>         The sling shot is hard enough to control.  I wonder if 
 TG> their technology is so fool proof that they can accomplish this 
 TG> with no previous experience or really practical data.
Hey,  they've got those Voyager spacecraft out of the solar system,  and 
that's with 70s technology!  That stuff does too work...
 TG> Especially since the earth wobbles instead of spinning.  (Now 
 TG> hows that for a segue from the sling-shot to a chance to crab 
 TG> about think-tankers presuming to be accurate with something
 TG> they've never done right yet?)
I dunno about that never done right yet part,  I think you're mistaken there.
email: roy.j.tellason%tanstaaf@frackit.com 
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