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This is one of those things where I am not sure if I just don't understand the core concepts, or if the person talking to me is a complete nutter. Isn't a 'bra
by RIMR 11y ago
This is one of those things where I am not sure if I just don't understand the core concepts, or if the person talking to me is a complete nutter.
Isn't a 'brane' a mathematical object? Is there any basis in science for turning a physical 3d object into a M2-Brane?
At first read I thought he was just talking about a space probe in the form of a thin sheet that could propel itself in a novel way. Now I think he's talking about dropping the ship out of the third dimension.
Can anyone here ELI5?
- chiaro 11y agoI assume it's some kind of solar sail. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_sail https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_sail
- foobarbecue 11y agoNope. They describe the propulsion quite clearly. It's solar panels and an ion drive. The material they are ionizing is a liquid stored between the two sheets.
- smaddox 11y agoSounds like they just want to thin down a solar-powered ion-thrusted craft to the engineering limits, in order to maximise the collecting area.
- cyphar 11y agoBranes are used in string theory, but to be fair, that field of physics is basically maths.
- foobarbecue 11y agoYeah, seems pretentious and inaccurate that they are calling this a "2-brane" when they just mean that it's fairly thin.