The problem of deceleration will be handled by slowly circling the landing spot while the crew keeps a watchful eye out for really big lizards.
Posted on 03/24/2016 2:41:15 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
The travel time from Earth to Mars using current space flight technologies is estimated to be 9 months.
Last week, an innovative concept was proposed which claims to reduce the time that will be spent for Mars travel to merely three days through so-called photonic propulsion technology. But a new proposal threatens to radically shorten this period to an astounding 30 minutes.
The idea was revealed by Phillip Lubin, who is a physics professor at the University of California Santa Barbara. Lubin was also responsible for the photonic propulsion technology proposal. This time, however, he identified the use of high-powered lasers to propel wafer-thin spacecrafts to the Red Planet faster than the speed of light. Lubin wrote in an email to Headlines and Global News that using a "directed energy propulsion," which involved firing laser at a spacecraft, can revolutionize space travel because it will lead to the achievement of frictionless acceleration.
"As an example, on the eventual upper end, a full-scale (50-70 GW) DE-STAR 4 - Directed Energy System for Targeting of Asteroids and Exploration - will propel a wafer scale spacecraft with a one meter sail to about 26 percent the speed of light in about 10 minutes," Lubin was quoted as saying in a Daily Mail report. "[It would] reach Mars (1 AU) in 30 minutes, pass Voyager 1 in less than 3 days, pass 1,000 AU in 12 days and reach Alpha Centauri in about 15 years."
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, according to an email from Lubin. There is also a concern about space junk, which could hinder the spacecraft's progress or even pose serious harm to the vessel itself. Finally, some experts cite the issue of time dilation, a concept demonstrated in the film "Interstellar." Here, time slows down for the spacecraft as it passes a wormhole, according to Digital Trends. This means that while space travel takes 30 minutes, it could equal a decade here on Earth.
Lubin states that his proposal is still a concept and will be refined further in the future. For more information, the physicist has published his laser propulsion proposal in the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society.
laser sail spacecraft is not a new idea...
I’m not all-in on the faster-than-light part.
The design is real but the author is a nitwit.
I don’t see how he expects to go faster than light.
Cool idea but I’m thinking the G-forces might be a bit much. It is what 55 MILLION kilometers to Mars at a minimum.
Parking and checking in your luggage has always been the hardest part.
They just have to figure out how to slow it down and stop at the destination.
A cockroach might survive those G forces.
They lose a little energy with each photon, but they make it up in volume... ;-)
OK, who wants to volunteer to man the wafer thin space craft traveling at 1/4th the speed of light to the planet Mars whish is about 33-249 million miles away from earth? anybody? Anyone?
Domino’s pizza deliver to Mars is now possible!
how do they know something is faster than light if there is no light to see if it is faster or not?
Nope.
Finally, some experts cite the issue of time dilation,... time slows down for the spacecraft ... while space travel takes 30 minutes, it could equal a decade here on Earth.
I don't think it'll eat up a decade of Earth time, else why do it, but it'll certainly be a lot shorter than 9 months Earth time.
30 minutes? “Really snaps yer head back!”
Wouldn’t that involve a lot of g’s on both ends of the trip (accelerating and decelerating)?
The problem of deceleration will be handled by slowly circling the landing spot while the crew keeps a watchful eye out for really big lizards.
This reminds me of something, but I can't quite put my finger on it.
I’m getting a little long in the tooth, but it sounds like fun.
(1974)
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