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

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

[orionrising]

laser sail spacecraft is not a new idea...

[Steely Tom]

I’m not all-in on the faster-than-light part.

[Vince Ferrer]

The design is real but the author is a nitwit.

[dinodino]

I don’t see how he expects to go faster than light.

[taxcontrol]

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.

[ThomasThomas]

Parking and checking in your luggage has always been the hardest part.

[CMB_polarization]

They just have to figure out how to slow it down and stop at the destination.

[CMB_polarization]

A cockroach might survive those G forces.

[Rebel_Ace]

They lose a little energy with each photon, but they make it up in volume... ;-)

[RC one]

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?

[Larry Lucido]

Domino’s pizza deliver to Mars is now possible!

[Bob434]

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

[Lazamataz]

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.

Nope.

[roadcat]

Easy to do. Have a laser setup on Mars to decelerate the craft as it approaches Mars. The laser on Earth pushes it halfway, the laser on Mars takes over halfway to slow it down. However a problem for the passengers is evident:

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.

[Pearls Before Swine]

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)?

[shibumi]

The new technology comes with a decidedly "retro" look -

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.

[Disambiguator]

he identified the use of high-powered lasers to propel wafer-thin spacecrafts to the Red Planet faster than the speed of light

This reminds me of something, but I can't quite put my finger on it.

[gorush]

I’m getting a little long in the tooth, but it sounds like fun.

[DiogenesLamp]

laser sail spacecraft is not a new idea...

(1974)