Quote from: Eric Hedman on 04/12/2016 10:50 pmI 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.Could they make the sail out of some kind of reflective ablative?
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.
By what magic the probe is not instantly vaporized by multi-gigawatt laser beams?
I still think an orbital laser, or a bunch of them, would be better. Perhaps a very large inflatable mirror with an active-optics secondary mirror to adjust for imperfections in the inflatable mirror.
They mentioned 60000g acceleration (probably peak initial).
1. Making a planetary flyby in another star system at 0.2c?2. What if the 1g probe's course is slightly altered by interstellar dust or similar?3. Does it have its own propulsion?4. How is it supposed to navigate?
Quote from: Oli on 04/13/2016 07:47 am1. Making a planetary flyby in another star system at 0.2c?2. What if the 1g probe's course is slightly altered by interstellar dust or similar?3. Does it have its own propulsion?4. How is it supposed to navigate?1. Cool huh?2. Then the probe ends up in slightly different place than planned. The plan is to shoot out large number of them. Perhaps spread the flotilla a bit like a shotgun pattern to increase odds that at least some ends up in the right place.3. Photon thrusters are mentioned, but given the miniature attainable power levels they are probably for orienting only.4. Poorly? I guess it could trim its trajectory a bit acting as a solar sail.
Making a planetary flyby in another star system at 0.2c? What if the 1g probe's course is slightly altered by interstellar dust or similar? Does it have its own propulsion? How is it supposed to navigate?IMO this is one of those "Moore's law will fix everything" concepts.