A mission to reach 1% of the Speed Of Light

[Lukaszenko]

On 7/14/2013 at 9:46 AM, Justy said:

On second thought, you probably don't leave it on Earth, you leave it in Earth *orbit*. You can't afford to lose laser output as heat before it leaves the atmosphere. 

 

Oooh I don't know about that man. That thing is not going to stay in orbit very long...you know, the whole action/reaction thing

Edited August 27, 2016 by Lukaszenko

[gogozerg]

On 16/07/2013 at 0:39 AM, Sliinty said:

EDIT: admittedly they will be going over 0.01c, that's for sure, but c is the max no matter your frame of reference.

 

c is the maximum speed when you look at the universe locally. But with cosmic expansion, you get relative speeds far beyond the speed of light.

And since expansion seems to be accelarating... well... just do nothing, and wait for the Big Rip! :-)

[GoSlash27]

As long as we're going to the trouble, let's send it past Prox. B and take some pictures!

Best,
-Slashy

[Laie]

5 hours ago, GoSlash27 said:

As long as we're going to the trouble, let's send it past Prox. B and take some pictures!

Funny that you should mention that, as someone has been proposing just that a little earlier this year. In April, long before the planet made the news. I've shook my head then and tried to learn more now, but what I find is pretty thin; it all seems to be based on this:

https://breakthroughinitiatives.org/News/4

Also funny that this thread has been necro'd just in time so I don't have to open a new one.

Apart from obvious questions like what's the scientific payload and how do you power it, I wondered how feasible that solar sail thing really is. They say they want to "accelerate individual nanocrafts to the target speed within minutes", I say what? Then again, If you accelerate more gently, say, one week to reach the designated speed, it will be way past the Kuiper Belt for most of the time -- you'd need a really focused laser in that case.

Either way, huh.