RE: Planet Found in Habitable Zone Around Nearest Star
August 25, 2016 at 11:40 pm
(This post was last modified: August 25, 2016 at 11:43 pm by Anomalocaris.)
(August 25, 2016 at 11:35 pm)Rhythm Wrote: They're the same thing, the only difference being the source of photons. Speaking of which, if the laser is craft based it needs power, if it's ground (or earth orbit) based it loses effectiveness as it increases in distance due to dispersion.
You can use a very large phased array of separate laser emitters to achieve the effect of a single emitter with an truly enormous aperture, say aperture equal to the diameter of the earth, or even diameter of earth's ambit around the sun. This would produce a beam of extremely high level of focus and low dispersion, such that it would have hardly dispersed at all at 4 light years. The beam need not be very intense, since it would have years or decades to impart thrust.
