but you'd look like a transporter malfunction when you arrived.
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.
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...
“author is a nitwit.”
That is an insult to nitwits everywhere.
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
“We deliver in peace within 1/2 hour or it’s free.”
but you'd look like a transporter malfunction when you arrived.
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.
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.
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.
Need photonic braking too. A lotta go needs a lotta slow.
How are you going to fit in a wafer thin spacecraft?
500 million miles per hour more if you want to stop there.
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.
The thing about the pizza analogy is that you end up
the cheeze filled crust.
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.
Eat on the Mooch's school lunch program...
That's all we need. Cockroaches on Mars.
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.
HA! Great line. Gonna use that.
Think of all the dead birds and airline passengers.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.