Intermarkets' Privacy Policy
Support


Donate to Ace of Spades HQ!



Recent Entries
Absent Friends
Bandersnatch 2024
GnuBreed 2024
Captain Hate 2023
moon_over_vermont 2023
westminsterdogshow 2023
Ann Wilson(Empire1) 2022
Dave In Texas 2022
Jesse in D.C. 2022
OregonMuse 2022
redc1c4 2021
Tami 2021
Chavez the Hugo 2020
Ibguy 2020
Rickl 2019
Joffen 2014
AoSHQ Writers Group
A site for members of the Horde to post their stories seeking beta readers, editing help, brainstorming, and story ideas. Also to share links to potential publishing outlets, writing help sites, and videos posting tips to get published. Contact OrangeEnt for info:
maildrop62 at proton dot me
Cutting The Cord And Email Security
Moron Meet-Ups






















« Student Leaks University Quiz to Determine How "Privileged" You Are, And How Often You "Microaggress" | Main | There Is A Flying Pig Over Columbus Ohio [CBD] »
April 12, 2016

Hey, Let's Send Some Tiny Spaceships to Alpha Centauri, 4.37 Light Years Away. It'll Only Take 20 Years.

All right, I'm up for it.

The key is laser propulsion. The idea is that laser light has momentum. If you direct it at a sail, the laser will push the sail.

The little spaceships would have little sails. We'd aim the lasers at the sails from earth to propel them. The big, huge advantage is that the power supply and fuel and engines wouldn't be part of the spaceships; all of that mass would just sit home on earth. Basically it's like separating your engines and fuel tanks from your ship by a very, very long power cord made of laser light.

We could get them up to, it says, one fifth of the speed of light (!!!) before we lost focus with the lasers. And then they would just cruise the rest of the way.

0.2 c isn't a bad speed at all. Pretty zippy, actually.

In an attempt to leapfrog the planets and vault into the interstellar age, a bevy of scientists and other luminaries from Silicon Valley and beyond, led by Yuri Milner, the Russian philanthropist and Internet entrepreneur, announced a plan on Tuesday to send a fleet of robot spacecraft no bigger than iPhones to Alpha Centauri, the nearest star system, 4.37 light-years away.

If it all worked out -- a cosmically big "if" that would occur decades and perhaps $10 billion from now -- a rocket would deliver a "mother ship" carrying a thousand or so small probes to space. Once in orbit, the probes would unfold thin sails and then, propelled by powerful laser beams from Earth, set off one by one like a flock of migrating butterflies across the universe.

Within two minutes, the probes would be more than 600,000 miles from home -- as far as the lasers could maintain a tight beam -- and moving at a fifth of the speed of light. But it would still take 20 years for them to get to Alpha Centauri. Those that survived would zip past the star system, making measurements and beaming pictures back to Earth.

They say the start-up for this "probably more than half a lifetime away."

I didn't read the article but I'm gonna guess the laser propulsion system itself has to be in orbit around the earth. You know, so it doesn't get all beaten up and defocused by the air.

So, we just need a big array of incredibly-pinpoint-accurately-targeted lasers in space.

"I'm listening," said CENTCOM.

No but seriously: Imagine if you had a bunch of lasers in space with super targeting ability.

Now imagine pointing those down at, say, al-Bagdadhi, head of ISIS.

Imagine further that each laser is harmless and passes through the human body without trace. But let's say you aim several of them so that their wavelengths overlap and amplify each other at a convergence point.

Let's say this convergence point is roughly in the middle of al-Bagdadhi's brain.

You know. Fun stuff.

Might even be undetectable, unless you're specifically looking for laser burns in the middle of the brain.

Anyway -- win win, as far as I'm concerned. Some lasers point out, and a few special little guys point down. *

* Chris McKnight just said "It would be like lazing a stick of dynamite" and then objected because he's a silly pleasureboy who never wants to do anything cool with lasers.


Thanks to @comradearthur.

The Falcon Has Landed: This happened last week, but stil worth watching -- the private spacecraft Falcon 9 staged a successful test of re-landing its rocket on an ocean platform.

Video of touchdown here.

Here's more recent vid of Falcon 9 coming back into port, to be moved to its launch site again.

Thanks to rickl.


digg this
posted by Ace at 06:32 PM

| Access Comments




Recent Comments
Heart Attack: "27...It would be more useful as "Fatness, Diabetes ..."

Soil-Stabilization-services: "Attractive section of content. I just stumbled upo ..."

tubal: "411 I hate to break it to you but this is not 2020 ..."

18-1: "It would be interesting to see an interview with t ..."

RNC Commissar Hrothgar (hOUT3) ~ Next year in Corsicana - again! ~ [/i][/b][/u][/s]: "[i]407 There needs to be a pool as to when Hunter ..."

Sponge - F*ck Cancer: "[i]"It finally dawns on Clooney that his BFF Obama ..."

tubal: "Ecclesiastes 9:1-2 Posted by: Marcus T at Decembe ..."

Ace's White Hats: "[i]400 But what galls me is these feckless GOP Sen ..."

one hour sober: "Oh, it's not just me that believes one shouldn't r ..."

Notsothoreau: "I hate to break it to you but this is not 2020. I ..."

Sponge - F*ck Cancer: "It's not that Hunter is above the law, it's just t ..."

Question Authority bumper sticker: ""It finally dawns on Clooney that his BFF Obama ma ..."

Recent Entries
Search


Polls! Polls! Polls!
Frequently Asked Questions
The (Almost) Complete Paul Anka Integrity Kick
Top Top Tens
Greatest Hitjobs

The Ace of Spades HQ Sex-for-Money Skankathon
A D&D Guide to the Democratic Candidates
Margaret Cho: Just Not Funny
More Margaret Cho Abuse
Margaret Cho: Still Not Funny
Iraqi Prisoner Claims He Was Raped... By Woman
Wonkette Announces "Morning Zoo" Format
John Kerry's "Plan" Causes Surrender of Moqtada al-Sadr's Militia
World Muslim Leaders Apologize for Nick Berg's Beheading
Michael Moore Goes on Lunchtime Manhattan Death-Spree
Milestone: Oliver Willis Posts 400th "Fake News Article" Referencing Britney Spears
Liberal Economists Rue a "New Decade of Greed"
Artificial Insouciance: Maureen Dowd's Word Processor Revolts Against Her Numbing Imbecility
Intelligence Officials Eye Blogs for Tips
They Done Found Us Out, Cletus: Intrepid Internet Detective Figures Out Our Master Plan
Shock: Josh Marshall Almost Mentions Sarin Discovery in Iraq
Leather-Clad Biker Freaks Terrorize Australian Town
When Clinton Was President, Torture Was Cool
What Wonkette Means When She Explains What Tina Brown Means
Wonkette's Stand-Up Act
Wankette HQ Gay-Rumors Du Jour
Here's What's Bugging Me: Goose and Slider
My Own Micah Wright Style Confession of Dishonesty
Outraged "Conservatives" React to the FMA
An On-Line Impression of Dennis Miller Having Sex with a Kodiak Bear
The Story the Rightwing Media Refuses to Report!
Our Lunch with David "Glengarry Glen Ross" Mamet
The House of Love: Paul Krugman
A Michael Moore Mystery (TM)
The Dowd-O-Matic!
Liberal Consistency and Other Myths
Kepler's Laws of Liberal Media Bias
John Kerry-- The Splunge! Candidate
"Divisive" Politics & "Attacks on Patriotism" (very long)
The Donkey ("The Raven" parody)
Powered by
Movable Type 2.64