On Tue, Feb 16, 2016 at 11:05 PM, Craig Berry <xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:

True. But that only eliminates the pinch-fusion generator. You still need the ginormous supercooled precision-tuned magnets, which might be a bit difficult to cobble together in the machine shop. :) It seems unlikely a ship would even have the right materials aboard to try.

Which is where you get creative.

Ever read Lois McMaster Bujold's "Falling Free?" The engineer hero in that story had to repair a micron-precision-crafted jump mirror in the middle of empty space, with only a basic workshop. Fortunately, he had lots of water and some explosives available.

Richard Aiken

"Never insult anyone by accident." Robert A. Heinlein

"I studied the Koran a great deal. I came away from that study with the conviction there have been few religions in the world as deadly to men as Muhammed." Alexis de Tocqueville (1843)

"We know a little about a lot of things; just enough to make us dangerous." Dean Winchester

"It has been my experience that a gun doesn't care who pulls its trigger." Newton Knight (as portrayed by Matthew McConaughey), to a scoffing Confederate tax collector facing the weapons held by Knight's young children and wife.