RE: Planet Found in Habitable Zone Around Nearest Star
August 25, 2016 at 8:29 pm
(This post was last modified: August 25, 2016 at 8:45 pm by Anomalocaris.)
(August 25, 2016 at 6:33 pm)Rhythm Wrote: Laser propulsion is also subject to the rocket equations diminishing returns in the case of local power generation, and external source devices are limited by their proximity to source which..in case of solar devices, decreases as their velocity and therefore distance form the source increases regardless of their potential dv and in the context of their dismally low impulse values...just another way that precisely the same sort of diminishing relationship presents itself.
Forget all that, though, how do we effect an accurate mid course correction in a timely manner over such vast distances - remotely? That has to be step one, because it doesn't matter whether or not we can build the engine or the payload if we can't hit the target. If we could solve that, though...we wouldn't wonder how to build the engine.
Godammit..I'm never going to get to see any fucking aliens!
(our first truly interstellar vehicle is likely going to be a hybrid craft with high dv low impulse "x" to bridge the distance between stars, high impulse low dv chemical for manouvering in the well and when it matters, and clever use of the wells of all involved bodies in addition to onboard ai/computing for the course corrections... no one system or strategy without the others is going to be capable of solving the different navigational problems presented by long distance space travel.)
It seems improbable that any spaceship driven by an external laser to a fraction of speed of light could carry enough chemical fuel to slow down to make orbit at its destination. Most likely it would be designed to zip by the destination star without slowing down or having its trajectory appreciably altered by the tiny (compare to the space craft's velocity) gravity pull of the destination star. It can maybe sending out a blizzard of smaller probes to get closer up looks, but all will just blast by the destination at cruising speed and then sail on into oblivion.
To get there fast and then slow down almost to zero in order to ba captured by gravity squares the technical difficulty.
I wonder if it is possible to first send ahead A a massive Mirror, and then bounce a laser off the mirror to stop or slow the spacecraft on approach to the destination.
I don't I think accurate auto mated navigation would be difficult. Auto mated star tracking navigation system had been perfected in the late 1950s for missile guidance
