Tales of the Solar Patrol

[AlexanderHowl]

Heinlein rockets primarily depended on a handwavium form of transforming matter into energy, so their realism is debatable even by the standards of the 50s.

[Stormcrow]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Heinlein rockets primarily depended on a handwavium form of transforming matter into energy, so their realism is debatable even by the standards of the 50s.

That's okay, because the Solar Patrol's electron drives depend on a handwavium form of transforming luminiferous ether into energy, and their realism is explicitly described as superscience. They match very well in that way.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Heinlein rockets primarily depended on a handwavium form of transforming matter into energy, so their realism is debatable even by the standards of the 50s.

That's was only the big STL ships of the Methuselahs Children era and the "torch" ships of Time for the Stars.

His atomic rockets of Rocket Ship Galileo, The Rolling Stones and others were very hard Nuclear Thermal Rockets in Spaceships terms.

[Stormcrow]

You probably should not quote that much text from the book.

It doesn't really matter what sort of particles the etheric field can contain; you can blast stuff with them, and a gadgeteer can come up with other pseudoscience applications.

[Johnny1A.2]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Heinlein rockets primarily depended on a handwavium form of transforming matter into energy, so their realism is debatable even by the standards of the 50s.

No.

RAH did posit total-conversion rockets for some stories, but he also used more familiar ones. When he did posit total conversion engines, his ships still generally behaved 'realistically', in the sense that a total-conversion torch would let you do those things (which it loosely would).