tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-119383823552885882.post7824149695354121219..comments2024-03-12T07:22:29.718+01:00Comments on The Science Fiction Writers' Guide to Space: Propulsion: Not just rocket scienceTsana Dolichvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16213478548320312760noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-119383823552885882.post-24932413757358535082011-10-23T02:51:00.729+02:002011-10-23T02:51:00.729+02:00It's just a new kind of rocket science.
http:/...It's just a new kind of rocket science.<br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgAwyr5Udzw" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgAwyr5Udzw</a><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSkxPghXTCg" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSkxPghXTCg</a>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-119383823552885882.post-10189904149872472522011-10-20T12:14:11.102+02:002011-10-20T12:14:11.102+02:00Exactly. It's like if you decided to push some...Exactly. It's like if you decided to push something along by firing bullets at it. If you were sitting on the thing you were pushing along, it wouldn't move. You have to be standing behind it. The "recoil" on a laser is less significant, of course, but the push from the photons on the sail is also relatively small so it still wouldn't work. Also, if it did work, it would violate conservation of momentum since laser + ship + sail would count as one system and hence need something external to cause movement.Tsana Dolichvahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16213478548320312760noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-119383823552885882.post-19171778052136116572011-10-20T10:59:27.034+02:002011-10-20T10:59:27.034+02:00I'm assuming that you couldn't just get a ...I'm assuming that you couldn't just get a big laser, mount it on the other end of your ship and shoot it at the solar sail as the effective 'recoil' of the light particles would cancel out the sail's influence. You'd need something like a planet, moon or satelite to mount the sail-laser.Dante.https://www.blogger.com/profile/10699754203308934380noreply@blogger.com