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Is there any way for these probes to communicate with earth during their journey?

by jcfrei 4y ago

dghughes 4y ago
These proposed devices use laser or solar on a giant multi kilometre area material. I wonder if the shape of the material could also be a dish used to transmit a signal back to earth.
ncmncm 4y ago
There has been no hint of any answer to this question. Did they think no one would notice?
0xf00ff00f 4y ago
From their report: > We have run link margin calculations including Zodi, CIB, galaxy and optical emission for such a wafer scale system run in a hibernate/burst mode using the DE-STAR array as both the transmitter of power to propel and communicate with the spacecraft as well as to receive the very weak signal from the spacecraft and conclude it is feasible to receive data (albeit at low rate) at light year distances. Source: https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/roadmap_to_interstellar_flight_tagged.pdf https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/roadmap...
sliken 4y ago
This isn't new, there's been many discussions. But generally you spend billions making lasers, on the ground, in orbit, and on the moon has been suggested. You make the space craft with a sail a few atom thick surface tuned for the frequency of the laser to minimize weight and maximize thrust. However even 1% of the speed of light means it's going to be too far to accelerate significantly on the order of 10 minutes to 10 hours. Sure we could put laser arrays on the outer planets, but that's not particularly feasible today. So what do you do with your $billions of lasers once post launch ... of course launch more. Especially since you are likely to lose some due to radiation and space dust. Launch once an hour and hopefully your communication system can handle hops of 4 or more ships, which would be 4 hours * 0.01C = 0.04 light hours or about 1/3rd the way to mars. With some fancy encoding that doesn't seem so hard. People get across the earth on a few watts with signals 20db below the noise floor, no line of site, and a message energy sapping atmosphere and bounces off not particularly reflective soil. For some idea on the difficulty, with 1970s tech (45 years ago), voyager 1 has a 22 watt transmitter and is still communicating from well past pluto.

Is there any way for these probes to communicate with earth during their journey?

by jcfrei 4y ago

Is there any way for these probes to communicate with earth during their journey?

These proposed devices use laser or solar on a giant multi kilometre area material. I wonder if the shape of the material could also be a dish used to transmit a signal back to earth.

ncmncm 4y ago

There has been no hint of any answer to this question. Did they think no one would notice?

0xf00ff00f 4y ago

From their report: > We have run link margin calculations including Zodi, CIB, galaxy and optical emission for such a wafer scale system run in a hibernate/burst mode using the DE-STAR array as both the transmitter of power to propel and communicate with the spacecraft as well as to receive the very weak signal from the spacecraft and conclude it is feasible to receive data (albeit at low rate) at light year distances. Source: https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/roadmap_to_interstellar_flight_tagged.pdf https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/roadmap...

sliken 4y ago

This isn't new, there's been many discussions. But generally you spend billions making lasers, on the ground, in orbit, and on the moon has been suggested. You make the space craft with a sail a few atom thick surface tuned for the frequency of the laser to minimize weight and maximize thrust. However even 1% of the speed of light means it's going to be too far to accelerate significantly on the order of 10 minutes to 10 hours. Sure we could put laser arrays on the outer planets, but that's not particularly feasible today. So what do you do with your $billions of lasers once post launch ... of course launch more. Especially since you are likely to lose some due to radiation and space dust. Launch once an hour and hopefully your communication system can handle hops of 4 or more ships, which would be 4 hours * 0.01C = 0.04 light hours or about 1/3rd the way to mars. With some fancy encoding that doesn't seem so hard. People get across the earth on a few watts with signals 20db below the noise floor, no line of site, and a message energy sapping atmosphere and bounces off not particularly reflective soil. For some idea on the difficulty, with 1970s tech (45 years ago), voyager 1 has a 22 watt transmitter and is still communicating from well past pluto.