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Lasers Might Power Ship to Alien Planets


Claire.

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Proxima b: Lasers Might One Day Power Ship to Closest Alien Planet

The discovery of a potentially Earth-like planet around Proxima Centauri, the star closest to our sun, has ignited interest in whether the alien world could support life — and if so, how humans might one day launch a space probe to the newfound planet.

Though the planet, dubbed Proxima b, is the closest alien world that has been discovered so far, it is still located 4.2 light-years away, which is equivalent to about 25 trillion miles. As such, there's still some technological distance to make up if humanity wants to see the newly discovered alien world up close.

Getting to another star will require something a lot faster than chemical rockets. The so-called Breakthrough Starshot project, unveiled in April by billionaire investor Yuri Milner and renowned physicist Stephen Hawking, proposes using a laser to push a tiny, wafer-size spaceship to some fraction of the speed of light, and letting it sail off on a ballistic path to a nearby star — in this case, Alpha Centauri, which is located about 4.3 light-years away from Earth.

Read more: Live Science

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I think the most difficult thing might be how to slow down the spaceship once it reaches the planet it should study. You can't just pass by with maybe 20 % of the speed of light, then you won't be able to study anything.

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4 hours ago, fred_mc said:

I think the most difficult thing might be how to slow down the spaceship once it reaches the planet it should study. You can't just pass by with maybe 20 % of the speed of light, then you won't be able to study anything.

I am far from an expert, but suspect they should be able to find a way to control laser speed. if they can accelerate it they should also be able to decelerate it as well. Perhaps in theory anyway, I don't know for sure.

Here's another interesting article about the development of a laser propulsion system for space travel whereby lasers propel spacecraft with giant sails 

http://www.sciencealert.com/nasa-scientists-are-investigating-a-propulsion-system-that-could-reach-mars-in-3-days

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I'm generally positive we can't control the speed of lasers. Although power output could be controlled, so we may be able to set the speed of the ship, just can't change it after that. Like a cruise control that never turns off. However they did touch up on this in the link:

And the big downside? You can't stop the ship, since the laser engine powering it is back on Earth. This means that engineers might have to develop some hybrid system — possibly involving a laser onboard the probe — that could slow it down, but that would increase the mass of the spacecraft. "I have been talking about this for years," Lubin said. "I really wish someone could solve this problem."

 

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Proxima Centauri News - Breaking!!

Citizens are warned that a huge matter-anti-matter explosion is imminent, after what was described as a small disc-shaped 'probe', travelling at .95c, slammed first into a small ventilation shaft on our main power plant artificial Moon, and then found its way to the central core.  Engineers and scientists, baffled at why this object came at us at such a ludicrous speed from the direction of the Sol system, are now working to prevent what is likely to be an unstoppable chain reaction.  Sadly, it looks as if there is no way to prevent a major extinction event that will wipe out all civilisations on the 21 inhabited planets.

 

More news at 10.

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On 29/8/2016 at 8:20 AM, ChrLzs said:

Proxima Centauri News - Breaking!!

Citizens are warned that a huge matter-anti-matter explosion is imminent, after what was described as a small disc-shaped 'probe', travelling at .95c, slammed first into a small ventilation shaft on our main power plant artificial Moon, and then found its way to the central core.  Engineers and scientists, baffled at why this object came at us at such a ludicrous speed from the direction of the Sol system, are now working to prevent what is likely to be an unstoppable chain reaction.  Sadly, it looks as if there is no way to prevent a major extinction event that will wipe out all civilisations on the 21 inhabited planets.

 

More news at 10.

Why are artificial moons allways designed to have small shafts leading to the main power plant ?

You would think that people aliens had learned something from what happened "Long ago, in a galaxy far far away" ?

On a more serious note Fred_mc is right that slowing down at the destination is one of the biggest challenges in interstellar travel. The best solution at the moment seems to be the magnetic sail. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_sail#Interstellar_travel

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4 minutes ago, Noteverythingisaconspiracy said:

Why are artificial moons allways designed to have small shafts leading to the main power plant ?

Sorry to repeat this, but it has to be re-shown after that... "so, we're gunna plug up that hole?"

 

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38 minutes ago, ChrLzs said:

Sorry to repeat this, but it has to be re-shown after that... "so, we're gunna plug up that hole?"

 

:clap:

Put the ****ing damn plywood on the hole....

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