I've read Professor R.V. Jones "The Wizard War" (originally published in Britain as "Most Secret War"), and this reminds me very much of the story of the electronic warfare between England and Germany in WWII. This device reminds me very much of the cavity magnetron oscillator, sort of an "acoustic-frequency "magnetron"", not the best descriptor perhaps, but that's what immediately comes to my mind.

There is another, very serious, potential problem. There is a hypothesis that gamma rays from the Earth's uranium deposits provides the viability to basic cellular structure, by providing a tiny mutation, sort of a cellular "kick in the pants." If the hypothesis is correct, creating background radiation within the spacecraft to properly match Earth's would be non-trivial. I suspect there may be a lot of factors affecting humans in space for which we have barely scratched the surface, so there is a possiblilty that travelling in space may turn out to not really be viable for the human species. There is no guarantee that every potential problem for human space-travel will have a practical solution.

Regards, John

The entire concept of intellectual property (by which I include both patents and copyrights) exists precisely because "users want it" - ie, We-The-People grant the creator a limited monopoly to encourage that entity to do their thing

Actually, it's been my understanding that the entire concept was the result of Gutenberg's invention of the printing press, a "dangerous copy machine!".

Patents were issued to control this new press; "we don't want radicals to be able to have handbills printed" etc.

You had to have a license to print, and be a member of the Printers Guild, which effectuated the censorship.

Thus, the concept was invented solely for the purpose of censorship.

Now that we've got used to the idea of "Intellectual Property" after so many centuries, we are under the delusion that it's a reality.