4 ms·
No, the acceleration phase is only for a few minutes. (I agree with you that if it requires 100 GW of power for years, his criticism would be accurate.) After
by jessriedel 3y ago
No, the acceleration phase is only for a few minutes. (I agree with you that if it requires 100 GW of power for years, his criticism would be accurate.) After a few minutes, the probe is already so far away from Earth that you can't focus the lasers effectively on it.
- andrewflnr 3y agoFrom wikipedia: > ground-based lasers would then focus a light beam on the crafts' sails to accelerate them one by one to the target speed within 10 minutes, with an average acceleration on the order of 100 km/s2 (10,000 ɡ) Well damn, then. I missed that when I was reading about it before. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakthrough_Starshot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakthrough_Starshot