QuoteFocusing the light beam on the lightsail to accelerate individual nanocrafts to the target speed within minutesThose little probes are going to get a pretty swift kick. Even if it take a half hour to get up to speed they will be accelerating at almost 25km/s2.
Focusing the light beam on the lightsail to accelerate individual nanocrafts to the target speed within minutes
100GW for two minutes. That's some laser array!
Wow, if this actually flies....could they test a prototype by doing a flyby of Planet 9 (if it is really out there and located)? If Hawking, Milner, et al actually pull this off April 12 will forever be remembered and not just as "Yuri's Night" or the STS-1 launch
So, let the ideas flow, see what comes out of it, but don't hold your breath until launch.
Even if say, they get past all the technical hurdles, like building the laser and the spacecraft. If you're laser accelerator pointing is off by 1*10-50 degrees you'll be trillions of miles off course. Plus, how the heck are you going to communicate with it, you'd need a dish that's enormous, not to mention the 4 year time lag. The camera will only have on the order of minutes to snap a picture before flying past.
Quote from: wxmeddler on 04/12/2016 05:02 pmEven if say, they get past all the technical hurdles, like building the laser and the spacecraft. If you're laser accelerator pointing is off by 1*10-50 degrees you'll be trillions of miles off course. Plus, how the heck are you going to communicate with it, you'd need a dish that's enormous, not to mention the 4 year time lag. The camera will only have on the order of minutes to snap a picture before flying past.I wonder if there would be any possibility of active steering by angling the sail slightly? I know that this is considered for conventional lightsails.
I wonder how lasers of this power hitting a small target won't vaporize it. If it doesn't reflect 99.999999999% of the light there will be an insane amount of energy absorbed into this tiny spacecraft. I don't know of any material that can reflect that high a percent of the light hitting it.