Photonic Laser Thruster Promises Earth to Mars in a Week 413
serutan writes "Using lasers to drive spaceships has been a subject of interest for many years, but making a photonic engine powerful enough for practical use has been elusive. Dr. Young Bae, a California physicist, has built a demonstration photonic laser thruster that produces enough thrust to micro-maneuver a satellite. This would be useful in high-precision formation flying, such as using a fleet of satellites to form a space telescope with a large virtual aperture. Scaled up, a similar engine could speed a spacecraft to Mars in less than a week."
You can't go home again (Score:5, Funny)
Re:How "scaled up" is this? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:How "scaled up" is this? (Score:5, Funny)
Star Trek anyone? (Score:1, Funny)
Re:acceleration? (Score:5, Funny)
Lasers are better with Photons... (Score:5, Funny)
Muuuuch better than using those LASERS without Photons.
[I hear that adding the photons also makes them lighter...]
Re:All a matter of scale... (Score:5, Funny)
That's what she said
Re:acceleration? (Score:3, Funny)
Forget humans.
How much faster will my shark go with this thing bolted to it's head?
Re:Lasers are better with Photons... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:How "scaled up" is this? (Score:5, Funny)
Scaling up is fun (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Lasers are better with Photons... (Score:2, Funny)
Newton's Third Law of Motion would like to have a word with you.
Incredible! (Score:4, Funny)
Senior Aerospace Engineer at AFRL, Dr. Franklin Mead, "Dr. Bae's PLT demonstration and measurement of photon thrust (is) pretty incredible. I don't think anyone has done this before. It has generated a lot of interest."
Perhaps the demonstration would generate even more interest if it were credible.
Re:Scale. (Score:2, Funny)
IMPULSE DRIVE (Score:2, Funny)
Re:acceleration? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:How "scaled up" is this? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:How "scaled up" is this? (Score:5, Funny)
With all due respect to James Doohan... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:acceleration? (Score:5, Funny)
35 micronewtons /
I doubt the smallesst possible manned Mars vehicle could be less than 1,000kg. That's a scaling factor of 15.6 million. I can jump over 3 feet on the trampoline in my back yard, which translates to a maximum velocity of 4.23 m/s. If I scale that up by 15.6 million, I would be launching myself at 66,000,000 m/s, far exceeding escape velocity, and reaching Mars under my own power in under 30 minutes.
Re:acceleration? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:How "scaled up" is this? (Score:5, Funny)
That's just how it works.
There's no environment to harm in space so nuclear power can't possibly work out there.
Re:acceleration? (Score:3, Funny)
Since you've got to steer the thing at some point anyway, why not use whatever that mechanism is to just flip the thing around, Its way more fun and worse case, you'll have to mop up a few buckets of puke from the vertigo. Well, okay, worst case something breaks and you tumble out of control for eternity, but that's always a possibility whether you flip the thing or not.
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Re:acceleration? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:acceleration? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:acceleration? (Score:5, Funny)
Our chief scientist, Davros McDonald, has calculated the ultimate evolutionary form of the human race to be McNuggets. Why do you struggle against progress?
Re:acceleration? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:acceleration? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Lasers are better with Photons... (Score:3, Funny)
Now that fits well (Score:2, Funny)
Re:acceleration? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:acceleration? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:acceleration? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:acceleration? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:acceleration? (Score:5, Funny)
Not if you go at night.