4 ms·
Why is there a total amount of change in velocity possible from solar sails? Shouldn't it depend on the mass of the thing being accelerated, amount of time unde
by x1798DE 10y ago
Why is there a total amount of change in velocity possible from solar sails? Shouldn't it depend on the mass of the thing being accelerated, amount of time under acceleration, etc?
- Retric 10y agoThe further from the sun you get the less acceleration you get from the sun. So, 4x the acceleration = 2x the speed because your accelerating for 1/2 the time and 1,000,000x acceleration = 1,000x the speed. Further, the input power is fixed from the sun so the absolute best you could do would be 100% sail that's a single atom thick. However, that sail would be quickly destroyed by the sun and other things. Make an ultra thin sail with a tiny little cargo Say 98% weight of the sail and 2% cargo and dropping the cargo below that does not help much. You end up getting around 60km / second which is really really fast 1km/s = fast sniper bullet. But, we are comparing it to something going 4% of light speed which is insanely fast.