9 ms·
> would there be any advantage to building ion thrusters to accelerate the particles to speeds where relativistic effects become meaningful? Probably not; why
by jhgb 5y ago
> would there be any advantage to building ion thrusters to accelerate the particles to speeds where relativistic effects become meaningful?
Probably not; why wouldn't you just shine a light in one direction? It's effectively the same thing.
- pmontra 5y agoDon't photons have zero mass?
- jhgb 5y agoPhotons have mass equal to their energy equivalent. And relativistic ions have most of their mass in the same form. So propulsion-wise, the two are almost equal...except that a light emitting diode is much simpler than a particle accelerator. Both would have very poor thrust, of course, and with existing energy sources, the waste mass from the energy production would be disproportional so neither would really be used for anything practical.
- at_a_remove 5y agoPhotons have zero rest mass. That sounds like hair-splitting but it is not.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]