Lazer Light Laser
Lazer Light Laser
Will a laser work to propel a spacecraft?
Just wondering whether or not you could propel a craft at light speed in space, with a Lazer or light beam source from Earth, once the craft had been deployed in space. To do so would obviously reduce a lot of issues with respect to on board fuel storage, and propulsion system requirements etc and be a lot faster then conventional propulsion. Is it theoretically feasible?
Interesting question because it’s very inefficient to carry large volumes of rocket fuel around the solar system. So people will continually looking for new ways of controlling spacecraft and solar sails are one promising idea. How they work is you have a reflector which the sun exerts an outward force on, due to radiation pressure. Also, the solar wind exerts an outward force. What the Japanese Space Agency are doing at the moment, is trialing this experimental solar sail Icarus, which is 20 metres across. And they're going to try and to glide it down in the solar system towards Venus, using the solar radiation pressure to control their direction as they glide through the solar system.
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