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Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Mars in 3 day? NASA Researchers are Working on a Photonic Propulsion System

As reported by Science AlertDespite how far we've come in space exploration, one thing still holding us back from interstellar travel is our slow spacecraft. While we're able to propel particles to close to the speed of light in the lab, we're struggling to even accelerate spacecraft to beyond 3 percent of that. With our current technology, it's estimated it'll take humans around five months to reach Mars.


But NASA scientist Philip Lubin is working on a system where lasers propel spacecraft with giant sails to the Red Planet in as little as three days. Much likeBill Nye's much-hyped solar sail, this 'photonic propulsion' system relies on the momentum of photons - particles of light - to move forward. But instead of photons from the Sun's rays, Lubin's design would be given a push by giant Earth-based lasers.
It sounds pretty far-fetched, but in a video for NASA 360, Lubin explains that the technology is very much readily available, and that the system could easily be scaled up.
"There are recent advances that take this from science fiction to science reality,"Lubin explains. "There is no known reason why we can not do this."
But let's step back for a second and investigate how the system works. Right now, when we launch spacecraft, the thrust comes from burning a chemical, such as rocket fuel. Not only does this fuel source weigh down spacecraft, it's also an incredibly inefficient system when compared to electromagnetic acceleration, which is the use of light or other electromagnetic radiation to accelerate objects.
"Electromagnetic acceleration is only limited by the speed of light while chemical systems are limited to the energy of chemical processes," writes Lubin in a paper on the technology.
But while electromagnetic acceleration in the lab is relatively straightforward, it requires a lot of complicated and expensive equipment - such as the ring of superconducting magnets that make up the Large Hadron Collider - and hasn't been easy to scale up to the size required for space travel.
One candidate propulsion system, known as the 'impossible' EM Drive, has received a whole lot of attention for allegedly achieving electromagnetic acceleration, but NASA scientists still haven't been able to figure out how it works, or prove that it wasn't an experimental anomaly. 
Photonic propulsion, on the other hand, works in theory, regardless of the scale, making it a more viable candidate.
So how do photons work to propel something as big as a spacecraft? Despite not having any mass, particles of light have both energy and momentum, and when they reflect off an object, that momentum is transferred into a little push. With a large, reflective sail, it's possible to generate enough momentum to gradually accelerate a spacecraft.
While Lubin and his team haven't yet tried out their system, their calculations show that photonic propulsion could get a 100-kg robotic craft to Mars in just three days. 
A larger craft, like the kind humans might travel in, would take around a month to get there - one-fifth of the time it would take the Space Launch System (SLS), the world's most powerful rocket currently being developed to take us to Mars.
Lubin also explains that in the 10 minutes it will take to get the SLS into orbit, photonic propulsion could propel a spacecraft to an unheard-of 30 percent the speed of light - and it would also use a similar amount of chemical energy (50 to 100 gigawatts) to do so.
But the real benefit of photonic propulsion comes over longer distances, where the spacecraft has more time to speed up, and could eventually take us outside our Solar System and to neighboring stars.
To be clear, the system isn't designed to send humans across interstellar distances - first of all, robots are far better equipped for that mission, and secondly, we'd be far too heavy. Instead, Lubin proposes wafer-thin spacecraft that can get close to the speed of light.
But sending our own artificial intelligence to these distant solar systems - especially ones that potentially harbor habitable planets - would still be huge.
"The human factor of exploring the nearest stars and exoplanets would be a profound voyage for humanity, one whose non-scientific implications would be enormous," writes Lubin. "It is time to begin this inevitable journey beyond our home."
Lubin and his team last year received a proof-of-concept grant from NASA to show that photonic propulsion could be used for space travel, so we should start seeing some real-life results soon. Let's hope that the reality lives up to the hype, because we're pretty excited.
Find out more in the NASA 360 video:

5 comments:

  1. CO2 + UV laser → C + O2... 3d bioprinting = Immortality = go to stars ((typewrite: interstellar travel constant acceleration))

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  2. (2a)...interstellar travel not acceleration constant (laser)... a light´s beam that rotates is not a light´s beam that rotates... if it would be 1 only beam even the infinitesimal centrifugal force from gyration perhaps would break the beam launching tangentially its photons at straight line, as the stone of a sling loop that breaks. The arriving light from a gyratory pulsar star is something seemed, the same that gyratory laser pointer from horizon to horizon 180º in 1 second, each beam that exits from the gyratory source is an independent light´s ray with limited length that only goes away in straight line: source on. beam starts; source turns, that beam finishes, is off, and starts-on another beam in the new direction... Photon, its mas "is believed" that is zero, but is the Photons Mass impacting against the future Space-Sail that produces the Transfer of Linear Momentum (mass*speed), the thrust... Photon, "relativistic" Mass M = E/c²... constant h=6.626*10^-34 joules-sec... v, frequency e.g. red light=4*10^14 Hz...that photon energy E = h*v; E = (6.626*10^-34) * (4*10^14); E = 2.6504*10^-19 joules... that photon MASS M = E/c²; M = (2.6504*10^-19) / (9*10^16); M = 2.944889*10^-36 kgs... that Photon "relativistic" Mass ~29 ten-sextillionth of kg ______ 4 Screens, infinitesimal Centrifugal Force in kgs from that Photon, according to huge centrifugal G... 1: 95493 kms (96,105,971g)=2.8*10^-28 kgs (~28 hundred-thousand-quadrillionth of kg)... 2: Moon 384,403 kms (386,870,541g)=1.1*10^-27 kgs (~11 ten-thousand-quadrillionth of kg)... 3: Sun, 1.5*10^8 kms (150,962,873,002g)=4.4*10^-25 kgs (~44 hundred-quadrillionth of kg)... 4: Andromeda, 1.9*10^19 kms (913,135,316,143,368g)=2.7*10^-21 kgs (~27 ten-thousand-trillionth of kg)... When source turns, each individual laser mark on the screen has zero speed, do not moves, arrives and it vanishes, such as a light-bulbs row that they go being on and off one after another, from the first to the last hyperluminal speed, but is Not the speed of a mobile because there is Not any mobile.

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    Replies
    1. pulsar is not light visible, is invisible radiation; infinitesimal centrifugal force in "kgf (kp)" from that photon

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  3. ...interstellar travel constant acceleration (no coronavirus)... virus installs into smell sense cells of the nose high part... Perhaps... in gout-counts flask pour: 1 thin jet "Povidona iodada" (iodine) "Betdine Solución Dérmica" + very weak mineralization Water from the ºBottle till fill the flask, final color such as red wine (have prepared apart water ºBottle 2 liters pour it 3 spoonful of Salt and 1 spoonful of Soda Bicarbonate). 1 TIME DAY POUR-SELF 4 GOUT-COUNTS INTO EACH NASAL FOSSE. Experience 20 years ago without secondary effects.

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  4. ...interstellar travel constant acceleration (coronavirus: influenza vaccine?)... they say that influenza vaccine diminishes the effects and gravity of COVID-19... so, "while arrives its specific vaccine": EVERYBODYVACCINATIONINFLUENZA (WHO)... ((El Sistema Inmunológico reacciona a la vacuna gripe creando Anticuerpos que dañarán parcialmente el covid19 cuando llegue. Sin vacuna gripe, el coronavirus ataca a sus anchas y el sistema inmunológico puede reaccionar de forma desproporcionada produciendo Gran Inflamacíon que es lo que mata, por ello tratan con inmunosupresores para evitar en lo posible esa inflamación mortal. Con los Anticuerpos (the dogs) producidos en respuesta a la vacuna gripe el coronavirus (the tiger) atacado y algo debilitado no produce tanta reacción inflamatoria mortal... so, "while arrives its specific vaccine covid19": MASSIVE VACCINATION AGAINST FLU ALREADY (WHO)). Yo me la pongo.

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