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> I bet we could create crafts with modern tech that where tiny and much less expensive that the original pioneer and voyager crafts. It's harder than you'd ex
by Denvercoder9 5y ago
> I bet we could create crafts with modern tech that where tiny and much less expensive that the original pioneer and voyager crafts.
It's harder than you'd expect. At that distance solar panels are essentially useless, so you do need nuclear power, and you're continuously exposed to cosmic rays, so you need radiation-hardened electronics. Both of these drive up the cost. The Voyagers also had the the outer planets in alignment to give it a gravity assist, so if you want to get there on the same time scales you'll need a more powerful rocket as well.
- mjgs 5y agoI read somewhere that sending very small spacecraft to far away places was something that was being considered. Unfortunately I don’t remember the details. We just need an artificial gravity machine.
- TheCondor 5y agoBreakthrough starshot? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakthrough_Starshot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakthrough_Starshot
- mjgs 5y agoTiny spacecrafts and sails with lasers. Yeah pretty sure that was it. Such a cool idea, and it would only take 30 years, which means a lot of us will still be alive to see it. Imagine seeing actual closeup pictures of “earth 2”. Anyway if they used the same technology, but sent spacecraft out into space from locations all around the Earth at the same time, then we could gather data as this fleet headed into deep space. Like one of those big planet explosions in science fiction movies, but instead of an explosion, just tiny space crafts.
- Jeff_Brown 5y agoThere's no way to get a gravity assist in directions orthogonal to the solar plane, which makes travel in those directions either far more expensive or far slower.
- mjgs 5y agoI hadn’t thought of that, but your totally right. In the article’s picture, one of the space craft appears to be heading off in a direction outside of the solar plane, but it’s not by a huge amount. That’s why we need a way to create gravity artificially if we are going to do any space exploration. It would be a bit crap if we could only move in 2 dimensions.
- f6v 5y agoThat might be our best bet to get to other systems. But it’s still pretty much a fantasy. The engineering challenges behind that project just seem insurmountable unless we work on it as a planet, not just NASA, ESA, Roscosmos, etc.
- mjgs 5y agoIt doesn’t sound that hard, it’s just laser kites. I bet Elon could do it.
- Denvercoder9 5y agoApart from the insane amount of power required to use lasers as propulsion in this way, they also require a camera, computer, interstellar communications system and nuclear power source within a mass budget of a few grams. It's complete science fiction.
- mjgs 5y agoLiterally everything in this area starts out as science fiction. I think the general idea of sending lots of small craft is a good idea. It would be great to hear from the people building these things which parts are not possible currently.
- Chris2048 5y agoGiven the crazy high amount of laser power this requires, maybe placing a satellite close to the sun, and having it focus solar radiation, would be better than an earth based laser grid?
- Chris2048 5y ago> you do need nuclear power, and you're continuously exposed to cosmic rays silly question: can CRs be harnessed for power?