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Another way to get a spacecraft to 550AU would be to use solar sails and ground based lasers. You have a small spacecraft (USB memory stick sized). Do a sub-or
by sjducb 2y ago
Another way to get a spacecraft to 550AU would be to use solar sails and ground based lasers.
You have a small spacecraft (USB memory stick sized). Do a sub-orbital launch to get it out of the atmosphere. Then deploy the solar sails and fire ground based lasers at the craft to accelerate it. IIRC the theoretical maximum acceleration gets a you to 550AU in a few months.
https://www.space.com/laser-propelled-spaceships-solar-system-exploration https://www.space.com/laser-propelled-spaceships-solar-syste...
- trklausss 2y agoWhile you could get a _platform_ there in those months, “what’s the point of it”? You would like to get a _payload_ there able to do science as well, so a USB Stick sizes spacecraft may not be suitable (for now) for it. I can however imagine a proper ion-thrusted satellite with enough Antenna gain to communicate from 550AU back with real science.