3 ms·
Pressure from either sun light or laser is very small, and can be ignored for time intervals smaller than centuries. The method proposed in the article is only
by chr1 11y ago
Pressure from either sun light or laser is very small, and can be ignored for time intervals smaller than centuries. The method proposed in the article is only about thrust created by vaporization
- sandworm101 11y agoThe sun vaporizes. That's where comets get tails.
- Already__Taken 11y agoDoes it? I thought that was heated gasses boiling off.
- marcosdumay 11y agoBoiling off == vaporized (ok pedantically, boiling off -> vaporized, but not the other way around). The Sun only does that on icy rocks, and when they are near. Lasers can (in theory) do that on icy rocks that are much further away.
- sandworm101 11y agoIn space it often isn't so much boiling (liquid+heat=gas) as sublimation (solid+energy=gas). Sublimation can, weirdly, occur well below the freezing/boiling point. That one lone cosmic ray can heat a single molecule of water enough to cast it into space as a gas ... all in an environment where the average temp is well below freezing points. Temperatures in vacuum are strange.