Thruster May Shorten Mars Trip (from six months to a week!)

Photonics.com News ^ | 9/7/07

[tpaine]

The 'Bae Thruster' principle has been a staple of science [fiction] for 60 years.

Gotta love that name.

[chrisser]

Photons carry momentum.

Thanks. I forgot about that. A little Googling and Wikipedia-ing and I have a slightly better understanding.

Although the headache from trying to get my brain around quantum mechanics reminds me why I'm in IT and not physics.

[wastedyears]

That’s the same question I had when NASA said they wanted to test a Scramjet for space propulsion. They’ll need to carry a lot of air on board.

[wastedyears]

No, they kinda kicked me off, so I want to surprise them.

[SamAdams76]

Fact is that while we can theoretically build spacecraft that go at amazing speeds, we are always going to be limited in how fast we can go due to risk of collision with objects.

Picture how difficult it is to swerve around objects on the highway at high rates of speed. Now apply that to space only you are moving at much faster rate of speed. Even a tiny piece of space junk the size of a marble can be lethal to a spacecraft moving at a very high rate of speed.

So unless we can develop some kind of sophisticated radar that can allow our spacecraft to see these objects millions of miles away and automatically make slight corrections in course to avoid these tiny objects or unless we develop an exterior to the spacecraft that is impervious to collisions at high rates of speed, we are going to continue to be limited in how fast we can go in space.

What we really need to focus on is teleportation.

[no-s]

An effective photon thruster would also make an effective raygun...

[JRios1968]

The look outside your window:

[LibWhacker]

Another possibility I’ve read about: Inducing an artificial “atmosphere” around your ship that extends out hundreds of miles and in which any moderately massive incoming asteroids would burn up. This, perhaps, could be some kind of plasma held in place by a strong magnetic field?

[LibWhacker]

Wow, just like my Corvette! ;-)

[Kevmo]

BMFLR

[wastedyears]

Don't let him get in the cockpit.

[SampleMan]

Anybody know how long a human can function under sustained multiple g-loads?

1G appears to be sustainable for 90+ years. I think that all sustained acceleration would aim to hold 1G. I think that would provide the said velocity of 100 km/sec in less than 24 hours. Dropping that acceleration to .5G would likely provide a more comfortable trip.

A lower thrust over a longer period would seem to be better.

[SampleMan]

As long as its not an assault raygun.

[dgallo51]

I don’t know jack about torpedoes, but somebody ping me if they happen across utube videos on how to build one of these bad boys with ‘off the shelf’ parts…I’m thinking this is the newest MUST HAVE for anti-home invasion security.

[MarkL]

A spacecraft travelling at those speeds will need:

2. A lot of braking power.

If the thruster can accelerate it, the same thruster can brake it.

Mark

[Former Proud Canadian]

Ping to you. Wonder if it would break any glasses?

[east1234]

This is what shields are for, haven’t you ever seen StarTrek?

[SampleMan]

If the thruster can accelerate it, the same thruster can brake it.

Sorta my point. A lot of fuel will have to be accelerated, because it will be needed to de-accelerate.

[Lee'sGhost]

This is WAY too cool to be true.

[43north]

Yadda, yadda, yadda.

What’s REALLY important is the carbon signature of this thing. Until we know that, we won’t know how many offsets will be needed...