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Scientist Reveals Propulsion Technology That Could Blast Probe To Mars In 30 Minutes
Headlines & Global News ^ | February 29, 2016 | Chris Loterina

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.


TOPICS: Astronomy; Government; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: astronomy; california; mars; nasa; philliplubin; santabarbara; science; spacetravel; uofcalifornia
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To: PIF
And who puts that slow down laser on Mars in the first place?

Some future astronauts will get it done, maybe a hundred years from now. I was a fan of NASA back in the 1960s when anything was possible. We were promised to have men on Mars by the late 1980s. What a con job by politicians! We can't even get our own people in space on our own now. So putting a laser setup on Mars will probably get done by the Chinese. Unless Trump gets elected and turns things around...

41 posted on 03/24/2016 3:22:09 PM PDT by roadcat
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To: Vince Ferrer

“author is a nitwit.”

That is an insult to nitwits everywhere.


42 posted on 03/24/2016 3:22:21 PM PDT by TalonDJ
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To: shibumi
shibumi :" “Flash Gordon, Rocket Ship” - 1936 "

Good one !! As I remember , before CGI you could almost see the wire that the ' ship' was moving on .
And the smoke trail, suggesting propulsion, barely had any movement . Thanks

43 posted on 03/24/2016 3:22:41 PM PDT by Tilted Irish Kilt ( British historian Arnold Toynbee - Civilisations die from suicide, not by murder.)
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To: Larry Lucido

“We deliver in peace within 1/2 hour or it’s free.”


44 posted on 03/24/2016 3:22:59 PM PDT by blackdog (There is no such thing as healing, only a balance between destructive and constructive forces.)
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To: taxcontrol
You'd get there in a hurry,

but you'd look like a transporter malfunction when you arrived.

45 posted on 03/24/2016 3:23:32 PM PDT by PLMerite (The Revolution...will not be kind.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Faster than light speed?

From a real physicist?

Sounds more like something from a Climate Change “scientist” to me.

However, methinks the reporter may have pulled a Hillary or two....after all, both reporters and the Hillbeast are of equivalent technical intelligence.


46 posted on 03/24/2016 3:26:10 PM PDT by Da Coyote
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I wish I could be around another hundred years. when I hear about scientific speculation like this because I know that the benefits of this wont be there for another hundred years.


47 posted on 03/24/2016 3:27:22 PM PDT by PCPOET7 ( TH)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

There are already lasers on Mars.

You just start shooting lasers at Mars and see what happens.

It always ends up the same way.

Big, three-legged stools crashing around and turning off the lights.

You have been warned, Earthlings.


48 posted on 03/24/2016 3:27:48 PM PDT by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer")
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Need photonic braking too. A lotta go needs a lotta slow.


49 posted on 03/24/2016 3:29:02 PM PDT by KingLudd
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To: Mr. K
If they could make it a 30 minute ride I would volunteer - absolutely.

How are you going to fit in a wafer thin spacecraft?

50 posted on 03/24/2016 3:36:42 PM PDT by usurper (Liberals GET OFF MY LAWN)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

500 million miles per hour more if you want to stop there.


51 posted on 03/24/2016 3:36:55 PM PDT by Mike Darancette (The most vocal supporters of a good con man are the victims.)
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To: Mr. K

Do the G math the article references getting to Mars in 30 minutes - other rates are irrelevant to the post. You will be soup at the Gs necessary to get to Mars in 30 minutes. That is if you could make something - a structure - which would also sustain the g force with out flying apart. Getting to Mars in 30 minutes means going for 15 minutes before turn over and decelerating at the same rate for the next 15 minutes.

A constant 1.5 G will not get you to Mars in 30 minutes. Also you can only go half way to Mars at 1.5 G before turning over and decelerating at 1.5 g.


52 posted on 03/24/2016 3:37:38 PM PDT by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now it is your turn ...)
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To: blackdog

The thing about the pizza analogy is that you end up
the cheeze filled crust.


53 posted on 03/24/2016 3:38:49 PM PDT by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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To: TalonDJ

The travel time from Earth to Mars using current space flight technologies is estimated to be 9 months.

Hsve sex on the way and your kid could be a martian
anchor baby.


54 posted on 03/24/2016 3:40:43 PM PDT by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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To: DiogenesLamp

55 posted on 03/24/2016 3:45:04 PM PDT by wally_bert (I didn't get where I am today by selling ice cream tasting of bookends, pumice stone & West Germany)
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To: usurper
How are you going to fit in a wafer thin spacecraft?

Eat on the Mooch's school lunch program...

56 posted on 03/24/2016 3:45:17 PM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
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To: CMB_polarization
A cockroach might survive those G forces.

That's all we need. Cockroaches on Mars.

57 posted on 03/24/2016 3:46:33 PM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
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Ok, being fascinated by crackpots I finished reading.

The actual point is to
- move something much smaller than a person (never mind life support)
- accelerate to relativistic speeds causing the payload’s perceived travel time to 30 minutes, while the trip takes longer in Earth & Mars time.

Thing is, the very fastest the time can take (from ground perspective) is 4 to 23 minutes, travel time for light depending on planetary proximity. For relativistic effects to become significant, you need be traveling somewhere around 80% of light speed - traveling so fast that the relativistic benefits of the trip are just an amusing minor consequence saving the traveller a few perceived minutes. Going at virtually light speed would save you less than half an hour.

The acceleration & deceleration, however, would destroy you. THAT is the truck-sized plot hole not addressed by _Interstellar_, lauded by the article. But that’s ok, the proposed project would just involve tiny packages, and maybe a cockroach.


58 posted on 03/24/2016 3:46:57 PM PDT by ctdonath2 ("Get the he11 out of my way!" - John Galt)
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To: PLMerite

HA! Great line. Gonna use that.


59 posted on 03/24/2016 3:48:19 PM PDT by ctdonath2 ("Get the he11 out of my way!" - John Galt)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Think of all the dead birds and airline passengers.


60 posted on 03/24/2016 3:49:21 PM PDT by <1/1,000,000th%
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