Posted on 02/17/2022 3:40:02 AM PST by LibWhacker
Why, we have just the thing.
https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/mit-plastic-stronger-than-steel
I remember that article, but it doesn’t say anything about withstanding high temperature/heat. Definitely deserves a look, though.
I’m thinking of meteorites bouncing off of it. Maybe they can put a heatshield in front of the sail.
Don’t be like the Greek God Icarus, who flew too close to the Sun while using his handcrafted Waxen Wings.
It’s a lesson you only learn once.
bkmk
Sounds of giverment munnny.
Next up a giant flashlight tied to the ass end pointing backwards under the premise that action and reaction will apply to photons.7
Or the world's madness is driving them Crazy Eddie.
I don’t remember if I listened to that audiobook. I know I listened to nearly everything related to Ringworld.
Imagine the mass of all the shielding, not to mention the effect of things bouncing off if it (deceleration). It would completely destroy the concept of the lightsail. Better to let things pass right through.
Beat me to it. Great book series.
How does it slow down?
So, 800,000 years to reach Alpha Centauri by sail ship.
At the half way mark, wouldn’t the photons from AC work against the solar photons? I guess we’ll have to wait 400,000 years to find out
That would suck, wouldn’t it?
With the speeds of objects in space, there would only be impacts.
Only, theoretically suck, but yes.
Square riggers could sail the trade winds, “downhill” or “before the wind”. Much harder to go into the wind without “tacking” a zig zag course.
“Maybe they can put a heatshield in front of the sail”.
Or make a spinnaker out of “Flex Tape”?
A sail such as this one could be made of aluminized mylar—and put into a synchronized solar orbit—limiting any heat-gain on planet Earth.
(That is, if we can agree on what temperature Earth needs to be).
Hamsters on a wheel... that’s the future of space power 🐹
And how are they going to get data back from it without an antenna? A 3x3 meter aperture (gain 40 dB at 3 GHz) at a 4 LY distance is a sick joke for a radio link budget. But, academicians don’t worry their little Marx beards about such trivia as the ability to send radio signals back from a star probe.
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