Scientist Reveals Propulsion Technology That Could Blast Probe To Mars In 30 Minutes

Headlines & Global News ^ | February 29, 2016 | Chris Loterina

[Mr. K]

If they could make it a 30 minute ride I would volunteer - absolutely

[Mr. K]

duh... you bring a flashlight with you!

silly...

[DiogenesLamp]

The design is real but the author is a nitwit.

That was my first thought as well. It was that "faster than the speed of light" thing that just shows either sloppy writing, or sloppy understanding.

[ronnietherocket3]

wafer-thin spacecrafts

So you would get a computer to the destination, but nothing else.

faster than the speed of light

No, just no. The author should have run the article by someone with a degree in physics. This is not a proposal to get to the destination faster than the speed of light. Physics (at present) has stated this is impossible. In addition, one could not use light to propel something faster than light. Once the object has reached light speed, there would be no momentum transfer from light to the object.

As an example, on the eventual upper end, a full-scale (50-70 GW) DE-STAR 4

While not a stupid concept, DE-STAR is just a proposal. Also a 50GW laser is huge.

This means that while space travel takes 30 minutes, it could equal a decade here on Earth.

The proposal is to fly an object from Earth to Mars in 30 minutes. Whatever relativistic time scale that is in, it would take less than 9 months on Earth as that is the current amount of time.

[PIF]

And who puts that slow down laser on Mars in the first place?

Passenger pancake get’em now before they are all gone ...

[PIF]

And at 100 g or better the drain would pour you out of the capsule.

[Pollster1]

“Message reads: 'Houston, be advised: Phillip Lubin is a steely-eyed missile man.”
― Andy Weir, The Martian (edited)

[Pontiac]

“As a proposed precursor to interstellar travel, Lubin's concept has been met with a bit of skepticism due to some perceived flaws. For example, there is the question about deceleration once the low-mass probe approaches Mars

What good does it do you to get to Mars in 30 minutes if you are going to just sail right on by?

Lasers may be able to accelerate you to 25% of the speed of light but there is no laser on Mars to slow you down and no rocket on the spacecraft is going to do the job.

[LibWhacker]

propel wafer-thin spacecrafts to the Red Planet faster than the speed of light...

Discredits the entire article. Either the UC physics professor doesn't know what he's talking about (not likely), or the author doesn't, and nothing he says can be trusted.

[Mr. K]

OK, who can do the math here-

if you were able to do a constant acceleration of say 1.5G, until you were half way there, then turn around and do 1.5g the opposite way to slow down, how long would it take to go to mars?

[blackdog]

*Wafer thin Domino’s pizza deliver to Mars is now possible!”

[MeganC]

I think the reporter is making that up.

[JoeProBono]

[blackdog]

"if you were able to do a constant acceleration of say 1.5G, until you were half way there, then turn around and do 1.5g the opposite way to slow down, how long would it take to go to mars?"

I would need to know what time a train leaving from San Francisco at 63MPH passed thru Altoona with a ten minute stop in Newark intersected overhead, and of course that intersecting groundspeed to answer that question?

[Tilted Irish Kilt]

Bob434 :" how do they know something is faster than light if there is no light to see if it is faster or not? "

Hitting space debris at 1/4 the speed of light
might be construed as "Terminal Velocity"

[Tilted Irish Kilt]

“Captain Midnight “ ??

[Larry Lucido]

Might get cold, but the heat from entry into Mars' atmosphere will warm it back up!

[shibumi]

“Flash Gordon, Rocket Ship” - 1936

[ctdonath2]

“propel wafer-thin spacecrafts to the Red Planet faster than the speed of light.”

Aaaaand, sane people stop reading right there.

[reg45]

No, “Flash Gordon”