Getting to 25% the speed of light is impressive, but that also means that you would zoom by the target destination before your sensors would be able to give you much data. Also, it means that when your spacecraft hits the tiniest amount of space debris, you are going to have a very bad day.

@BulianJonner

8 жыл бұрын

+Physics Videos by Eugene Khutoryansky or youve created a laser powered space canon

@skyr8449

8 жыл бұрын

+Physics Videos by Eugene Khutoryansky yeah but the plan is to not get hit xD the sensors would travel the signal back in a reason able amount of time (the whole stopping issue was mentioned already in the video) however I doubt the signal would be strong enough, what would be cool is if we could carry a second laser to launch it back after it somehow stops.

@MsJeffreyF

8 жыл бұрын

+Physics Videos by Eugene Khutoryansky just set up a network of these things within our solar system. have one at earth propelling, one at mars decelerating.

@andretsang7337

8 жыл бұрын

+Lord lima bean sure, but it sounds pretty hard to see a rock the size of a dust mote while moving at 1% the speed of light and still be able to change course and avoid it. Especially if your ship in question is a huge square

@connor2525

8 жыл бұрын

I think it would be easier and safer to build a warp drive instead.

Because when you have enormous thrusting power, you might find yourself DEEP-IN.

@megalofyia9280

8 жыл бұрын

*sigh

@pennsmith8787

8 жыл бұрын

I new this would happen

@bossmanham

8 жыл бұрын

+Kevin Pranoto Some of us will. But not you.

@anthonyrymer4391

8 жыл бұрын

+Kevin Pranoto XD

@golden-63

8 жыл бұрын

+Kevin Pranoto *Deep inside dem sugar walls!*

I just want sharks with freakin laser beams attached to their heads!

@ShadedWolf96

8 жыл бұрын

lmao

@michaelcavicchio5618

7 жыл бұрын

That was a great movie😂

@TheFlag19

7 жыл бұрын

Dodge This! Start playing Ark dude. There are Sharks with Lasers on their heads

@punnily7743

7 жыл бұрын

Lysander do you even get the joke? *facepalm*

@briansegers674

6 жыл бұрын

Yeah no you dont....

there is a 100% chance we will use them to vaporize each other

@JohnFKennedy420

4 жыл бұрын

Tarek Chamas good ol’ humanity

@francisdavis1271

4 жыл бұрын

If you're familiar with the Kzinti Rule of reaction drives: "A reaction drive is a weapon with an effectiveness directly proportional to its efficiency as a drive." Compliments of Larry Niven

@johnwang9914

4 жыл бұрын

Or each others satellites while troops attack.

@geraldfrost4710

4 жыл бұрын

@@francisdavis1271 We could have gigawatt microwave generators in earth orbit, beaming down free power to stations on earth! No more need for fossil fuel! Also, I want to be the country with these stations, as our enemies armies would look like overcooked popcorn.

@TS-ib9ll

2 жыл бұрын

That's pretty true

Damn , a trip to another star in only 15 years :o even if it's a probe I WANT to see this happens during my lifetime

@evilcam

8 жыл бұрын

+Hurleur de foudre My thoughts exactly.

@DefineDeft

8 жыл бұрын

+evilcam sorry, but that profile pic doe

@MikeDragon

8 жыл бұрын

+Hurleur de foudre I know, right? That'd be a huge advancement in space travel! One that would make it into the history books and being able to witness it happen would definitely be a huge privilege!

@hurleurdefoudre4062

8 жыл бұрын

I'm hungry of photos of exoplanetes (even unhabitable) and distant star ^^

@matthewalexander9277

6 жыл бұрын

Sadly, you have to also factor in the time it would take for any data recorded from these trips to actually reach it back to us...but it's still cool.

Its like they desperately wanted to come up with an acronym for Death Star but just couldn't think of enough words.

@WhichDoctor1

8 жыл бұрын

+beayn Isn't it just!

@johncollins5091

8 жыл бұрын

+beayn shhh, do not expose the plans of the empire

"This is the captain. We have a little problem with our entry sequence, so we may experience some slight turbulence and then - explode. "

@alankott3129

2 жыл бұрын

Brown Quotes

@jonathonpolk3592

2 жыл бұрын

Oh God oh God we're all gonna die...

It's always a pleasure seeing old sci-fi ideas slowly become science reality (or science possibility)

@Nuclearcx

4 жыл бұрын

Possibility is right, since it's not reality at all. The investment in space exploration is absolutely miniscule even though the rewards could be astronomical (pardon the pun). Even though it could be possible to build a fleet of these mini spaceprobes and send them out to every star close to us, they just won't invest the money into it. That's how a 15 year travel time turns into 30 turns into 60 turns into 120...

@dankole307

4 жыл бұрын

You my friend are a self consumed idiot. This the dumbest bunch of. Can't say it. If pigs flew out of my ass that could be an alternative fuel source. Will you patent that for me? Junk science followed with BS. Good luck with that.

The mini spacecraft to other star system thing is awesome

@johncollins5091

8 жыл бұрын

+fejfo's games If it works, it's probably our best chance at figuring out if there's any life in alpha centauri

@rjmb4687

7 жыл бұрын

but how are we suppose to get the info once it gets there?

@FirstNameLastName-gu1mu

7 жыл бұрын

If you are advanced enough to go to a lightyears away star system in 15 years, you are advanced enough to be able to send signals.

@rjmb4687

7 жыл бұрын

Thanks! i searched it, radio waves travel in speed of light in vacum.

- scientist: So, we have a giant death ray, that is pushing a overly frail solar sail zooming through space at 1.5% c, with no idea how to slow down. - engineer: Yeah! 8-D - scientist: ... LET'S DO THIS ! O_O

@Njumkiy

8 жыл бұрын

just have another sail ins the opposite direction with a few thrusters to help slow down

@SleepyFen

8 жыл бұрын

+Njumkiy Lets Play (njumkiy) This requires thrusters to already be placed at the destination, no? If we're talking action-counteraction, putting the thrusters on the ship itself should mean that it doesn't move at all.

The future is bright

@klaasgersson4517

7 жыл бұрын

Your jokes are very punny.

@albertsitoe7340

7 жыл бұрын

I just thought It would be a bright idea to make a pun but I never knew it would propel the joke this far usually I am lazier -_-

@TheFish711

7 жыл бұрын

+TWNST LBC2 I think you gone too far, that was a pun on interstellar travel.

@TheFish711

7 жыл бұрын

+Archious P *you've

@giftysingh3925

6 жыл бұрын

Yeah bright really.

70 gigawatts!?! You could power, like, a buttload of Deloreans with that! (stumbles out of room, hand to forehead)

@EsparzaA5

8 жыл бұрын

+Len Arends 57.85 Deloreans to be exact!

@arooobine

8 жыл бұрын

+EsparzaA5 57.8512, to be more exact.

@blockhead134

8 жыл бұрын

thats Jigawatts not Gigawatts

@secularmonk5176

8 жыл бұрын

blockhead134 zhaigawatts

@atifmomin9079

8 жыл бұрын

18 gigawatts!! 88mph

25%?!?!! THATS CRAZY! Even for one gram ships.

Am I the only one that thought the thumbnail was a light saber?

@joshuapreza6463

8 жыл бұрын

Can not unsee

@gfr9109

8 жыл бұрын

yes

@michaellfc7025

8 жыл бұрын

No I thought it was mace windu's

@deepspacedoggydog

8 жыл бұрын

+George pana HA! Mace Windu's Grape Flavored Lightsaber!

@Hector-bj3ls

8 жыл бұрын

+Walter White Mace Windu's Grape Flavored Dilsaber! Mace Windu's Grape Flavored Lightdo!

Scishow makes me so excited about life. Sometimes when I'm sad I'll imagine all the future science and discoveries and innovations and it makes me feel better.

Immediately made me think of the book "The Mote in God's Eye" (Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, 1974) which begins with a spacecraft pushed by lasers exactly as described.

look how humanity developed, we made it from exploring the seas to exploring the space, but we still using sails.

@dylansaus

8 жыл бұрын

+Paul Sirota meaning space pirates could actually/eventually be true..

@megalofyia9280

8 жыл бұрын

Mark Watney was a space pirate

This guy won the vocal lottery, he sounds like a cross between Penn from Penn and Teller and Neil deGrasse Tyson

@melkior13

8 жыл бұрын

+Garrett R To me that seems like signs of a fine single malt appreciation. ;)

Dude so cool! I remember how excited I was to see the Saturn photos come back from Voyager when I was a kid, and to think we might see the same from Alpha Centauri or another distant source in our lifetimes, it's just amazing.

Oh yeah, in order to decelerate, an equivalent laser array could be set up on mars and take over at the half way point.

@Zlysium

8 жыл бұрын

That would only solve decelerating on a trip to mars and mars alone. Not a trip beyond that. And it wouldn't at that either. You couldn't get the same effect shooting the lasers at the other side of the solar sails.

@napoleon_bonaparte2462

8 жыл бұрын

Turn it around???

@Zlysium

8 жыл бұрын

Bloodmoon How are you planning on turning something around going 25% the speed of light if you can't decelerate it. Think before you type..

@napoleon_bonaparte2462

8 жыл бұрын

Turning around in space has no dependence on how fast you're going. Did you skip physics?? How do you think they aim satellites -_-'

@Zlysium

8 жыл бұрын

Bloodmoon I think you missed the point. If they don't have the ability to slow down, they obviously aren't able to apply any sort of forces to it. Other wise instead of turning it. THEY'D JUST SLOW IT DOWN.

"Teeny-tiny thrusters." It's a technical term.

Science exploration has come so far in the last 100 years alone, imagine where we'll be by the time Earth is uninhabitable.

@silencedcraft

8 жыл бұрын

+Genuine I was thinking the same!

@argon7624

8 жыл бұрын

At the same place

@Monstufpud

8 жыл бұрын

+Genuine next year?

@supernenechi

8 жыл бұрын

+Genuine Probably not on earth anymore.

@supertigik

8 жыл бұрын

+Genuine when trump gets elected ?

It's settled. 'Laser Sails' is the official name of my synthwave project. Thx SciShow!!!

197 chemical propellant vendors disliked this video

@ShadedWolf96

8 жыл бұрын

and 203 Flat Earthers lol

@Irdesce

7 жыл бұрын

Why would a Christian dislike this video. Lots of Christians love science and the advancement of humanity, such as me and all of my friends.

@tysonking1805

7 жыл бұрын

Colin McCrory Yeah I agree Colin, where is this mystical 11th commandment that says "thou shalt not advance society into thy stars" ?

@unipalooza.

7 жыл бұрын

Tyson King I don't agree with Norm T, but though I'm not very educated on the Bible and everything, because I'm atheist, I'm pretty sure there is something about the sun, moon and stars rotating around the Earth, and not to mention the dome that's supposed to be there. And it seems like heaven would be shattered right now. I know that I'm being ignorant, but I don't really want to read a Bible to make sure I write the right thing on a KZread comment. Sorry

@tysonking1805

7 жыл бұрын

Jorgan Morgan™ respectfully my friend, I have to ask, then why ask the question at all? A discussion without being informed is just an argument. However, in the spirit of ending misinformation; the bible does not talk about the Geocentric model (the earth being the centre of the solar system) in fact the bible does not touch on astrology to any great extent at all. As for the other things you said, dome? Heaven shattered? I'm not sure what you are talking about. Maybe you are thinking of a different religion, I'm not sure.

DE-STAR DEath-STAR Coincidence? I think not

Getting a probe to another star system in 15 years sounds more exciting, never thought i'd hear any modern method to get there in under the span of my lifetime!

Very nice video, will definitely help me for my essay!

THIS IS SO EXITING!!!!! THIS IS WHY I HAVE MY IMPORTANT VIDEO PLAYLIST!!!!!

This was covered much better on this channel then any other outlet.

De-star + A Thorough Hacking (ATH) = Death-star.

@isaacrodriguez9983

8 жыл бұрын

Yes... Thank you

Troll Physics. Put a flashlight on the solar panel ;D

@Peusterokos1

7 жыл бұрын

Psychis.....

@Irisendia

7 жыл бұрын

Yeah I noticed that fail Peusterokos1

@Irisendia

7 жыл бұрын

Let's pretend it never happend

@Peusterokos1

7 жыл бұрын

+Elven Loool

@Irisendia

7 жыл бұрын

Peusterokos1 XD

The biggest problem is funding.

@grimjowjaggerjak

7 жыл бұрын

Marc zukerberg and an other billionaire fonded that project

@TheSonic1685

7 жыл бұрын

tommysil So true

@lil_vault_boy4201

7 жыл бұрын

tommysil Well we can't go to space if we're having terrist blowing shit up.

@TheMoezilla

7 жыл бұрын

No bucks, no Buck Rogers.

@Ed-tg2sp

6 жыл бұрын

+TheMoezilla you deserve a million likes just for that

I'm cooking pasta while watching this video! For science!

@Niom_Music

8 жыл бұрын

K

@finleycastello6512

8 жыл бұрын

I swear I came up with photonic propulsion first!

@l1mewaxer

8 жыл бұрын

+Weapon Valhalla You absolute madman

@noahlawson8256

8 жыл бұрын

As a pastafarian, i salute you!

@uiomancannot7931

8 жыл бұрын

+Weapon Valhalla Did you cook them with lasers?

DE-Star? Just add three more letters and it sounds just like your average laser shoting space station.. xD

@megalofyia9280

8 жыл бұрын

A.T and H, right?

@quintenmessemaker8931

8 жыл бұрын

+Åke Lindblom that was the joke.

this is the best subscription ive ever made!

I had to check the publish date half through the video. I thought it was an April fools joke. This is incredible!

i know exactly what this is i only came here to say that not only is this an awesome idea its also beautiful. From small transfers of momentum provided over the course of a long time it builds to tremendous speed! like slowly building a mountain out of sand or integrating summing up infinitely small points to form a massive whole! beautiful.

De-star sounds suspiciously close to Death Star

@jesterofdimensionz

8 жыл бұрын

+Neighdan McHorse that's what I thought too lol

This is so cool humans are beginning to unlock the science of interstellar travel. Sooooo coool

Photonic propulsion seems like a viable solution to our interspace planetary travel and protection. Thank you SciShow!

If only we had a space elevator already... Looking at you, Elon!

@IvaNiftyChannel

8 жыл бұрын

+RunItsTheCat Elon's wont fund a space elevator until he's got a mean personal exo-suit. We all know it, let's be real. Who wouldn't?

DE(ath)-STAR confirmed

@Grubbbee

6 жыл бұрын

William Spence yeah they weren't even subtle about it haha

@robinhyperlord9053

5 жыл бұрын

Where is your icon from?

@NikolaosSkordilis

5 жыл бұрын

@@robinhyperlord9053 She is Lum from the Urusei Yatsura anime : uruseiyatsura.fandom.com/wiki/Lum

Wow! This what I have been talking about on social media! Forget the hydrogen fuel rockets to travel to Mars etc and focus on travelling at greater the speed of light

But what happens when you hit a small space rock while you are going "really really fast"?

@marcperez2598

7 жыл бұрын

f=ma. probably the equivalent of setting off a 300 lb. bomb at 1.5% the speed of light

@Guru_1092

7 жыл бұрын

Sooooo... Don't hit a rock. Got it.

@beaconrider

7 жыл бұрын

You turn into a rapidly expanding ball of metallic dust.

@danaphanous

7 жыл бұрын

this is the hidden problem no one talks about! ;) What we do right now is we scan the solar system and try to plot paths that won't coincide with anything. But we can't really see tiny things out beyond the solar system so yes, many of those tiny little wafer probes will probably be smashed to dust as we start to map the debris hiding out beyond our inner solar system. ;)

@kevinh.a442

7 жыл бұрын

Now they´ll have to work on shields

Seems a lot like an idea that scientist and SF author Robert Forward suggested 30 or 40 years ago. I notice that the Lubin paper cites him, so good for him giving credit where it's due, but other than that Forward's priority in this is being ignored. Forward suggested a way of slowing the craft as it approaches its destination. Basically, detach the solar sail as you near the destination. It continues forward but reflects light backwards, which the craft intercepts with a smaller sail, thus slowing itself.

So a huge powerful laser, like the DeathStar. This sounds so freaking awesome.

I love the future tecnologi, like this.

love this

They could send a laser shooter thing to orbit mars before they launch the mission and slow it down the same way they sped it up

@cuzzoohh258

8 жыл бұрын

is it that easy?

@AeroEndeavour

8 жыл бұрын

+Mr SoloDolo Well of course sending anything to mars is not easy, but i'd say the idea works

@commode7x

8 жыл бұрын

+Adrian T There's alot less sunlight on Mars, so you're going to have to either send a whole lot more laser equipment to orbit the planet, or you're going to have to slow down the ship much sooner. Also, it totally defeats the purpose, unless you're planning on a large colony on the planet with regular spaceship commuting happening between Earth and Mars. Last I heard, the Martian government's economy just isn't strong enough to undergo such a massive public works project. That, and their society has alot of other, more pressing problems, like lack of population growth, uncontrolled unemployment, and severe environmental issues.

15 years to go to another star system!? Sci-fi age will start!

@m.c.ballyhoo1494

6 жыл бұрын

Cowboy Bebop IRL.

They make it look so easy

I've been watching this video 3times for the 3rd time now

"But, it probably is possible." That is all I and I hope the rest of humanity needs to get something going and create a future among the stars.

That tiny space ship going to other solar systems makes me wonder if any tiny space ships have come through here. Maybe one is travelling around the universe making very very simple measurements of key factors indicating civilization then slingshoting to the next target or burning up after transmission.

@formerlypie8781

8 жыл бұрын

+bossmanham RIP

@armstrong.r

8 жыл бұрын

+bossmanham Savage.

@Niom_Music

8 жыл бұрын

I just imagine 343 Guilty Spark roaming around in the universe! :)

I love how the last thing you say is, it “probably” is possible

Yes we do have a way to slow such a sail ship. Dr Forward had it one of his novels. A two part sail, the large outer section would detach and then reflect the laser back onto the section still attached to the ship. This does take a huge sail but the whole concept requires a huge sail.

Nuclear. Powered. Lasers. This will make the Orion drive look like a V6 powered Mustang.

@Chooseyouruniquehandlebyaddin

8 жыл бұрын

+rock3tcat (ⵙⴰⵔⵓⵅ) *I4 underpowered Mustangs. Although it does make more power than a V6.

@chinatype2bassrocker809

4 жыл бұрын

Yeh! but with some drag pipes it would be a real bad-ass,... and the ladies are going to love it.

@nighthawkviper6791

4 жыл бұрын

It's called nuclear pulse detonation gamma ray lasers. You can also use chirped pulse amplification for HPL/MASER platforms powered by SP-100 or Kilopower Reactor variants.

KSP logic kicks in: MOAR BOOSTARS!

So exciting

Thanks for the video about photonic propulsion! Here is an electron/ion thruster that lifts its power supply from the ground. It is just a prototype but it is working and some of the math of what could be done with it is really amazing. If you want to see video you can click the purple icon.

50 -70 gigawatts! 50 - 70 gigawatts. Great Scott! What-what the hell is a gigawatt?

@ninjafruitchilled

8 жыл бұрын

10^9 Watts

@unematrix

8 жыл бұрын

+seahawk124 Watts are a measure of power, which is the amount of energy moving from point A to point B at any given time. One watt is equal to one joule per second. So a 100 watt lightbulb consumes 100 joules per second.

@seahawk124

8 жыл бұрын

+unematrix 50 -70 gigawatts! Tom, how are we going to generate that kind of power? It can't be done, can it?!

@seahawk124

8 жыл бұрын

+ninjafruitchilled Well, if my calculations are correct, when that baby hits 88 miles per hour... you're gonna see some serious sh!t.

@Liamthecomputernerd

8 жыл бұрын

+seahawk124 lol

Fire the photon torpedoes!

Nice! A one-way trip into the depths of space with no stopping in sight. What could possibly go wrong?

The concept being pushed in this video has other serious problems not mentioned. The station firing the laser could impart momentum on a target craft, but the laser station itself would have to maintain its position. The laser station would have an equal and opposite momentum imparted on it and require propulsion to maintain it's position. This will require double the energy you'd need to push the craft itself. As the distance increased to the craft, the energy that could be delivered would decrease rapidly, but the momentum imparted on the station would hold steady. The receiver for the light beam would have more effect from solar radiation at some point. The losses from the apparent photovoltaic panels powering lasers would also be a waste. Plain mirrors reflecting sunlight would almost certainly be more efficient but would still need to have their position maintained due to the push from solar radiation. Finally, how exactly do you decelerate a craft once it was half way there when all you can do is push??? There are at least two space propulsion concepts that have never been covered by SciShow space vastly more capable than this one. I'm not talking about the fictitious Alcubierre drive but real concepts championed by the likes of Carl Sagan, Freeman Dyson, and Robert Bussard.

Good luck getting a 1 gram probe to send back a signal from Alpha Centauri.

@VA7SL

8 жыл бұрын

+Cruzer not really a problem, just a 4.367 year delay in getting the signal back. They use a very quiet channel, utilize the amazing signal processing technology that will be even more amazing then what we have now (which is pretty spectacular already) by then and focus the beam in our direction to be received by the Deep Space Network. I have personally received a 1 Watt signal from the Mars Global Surveyor at about 6 Million km please see using home made antennas and amateur radio technology and it was EASY. If I had the equivalent receptive capacity of the Deep Space Network the signal would have deafened me. We can do it, it just takes money and the desire. Please see for details: mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mgs/sci/mr/mr_home/mrfaq.html

@gigabic7487

8 жыл бұрын

We can make it two grams if you really want to splurge.

Oh my god, plese get to alpha centaury withing my lifespan D:

@about80ninjas

8 жыл бұрын

I say the same thing. But the problem is that research is not well funded, or at least funded enough to develop such technologies. But have faith in humanity, although not all perfect, we may eventually reach the stars with our lifetime. IDK, it's just my young imagination taking over my thoughts...

@tsmores

8 жыл бұрын

+about80ninjas Or the Russians want to get there first. FUCK THIS SHIT LET'S DO COLD WAR 2

@Jawz4Lyfe

8 жыл бұрын

+ThermaVelocity _Call of Duty: Cold War 2_

This reminds of how when humanity first took to the oceans, the first ships used sails to propel them, looks like history repeating itself in a good way, this helps me see that there is hope for us getting to the stars, can't wait to see what we come up With as time passes

@DissedRedEngie

8 жыл бұрын

I just hope that a new religion decides to show up and destroy the modern society and forget all the knowledge we now have because it's against their religions teachings.

@DissedRedEngie

8 жыл бұрын

+FinlanderSane doesn't decide to show up* fuck i'm tired

@mgpmisterk2322

8 жыл бұрын

+FinlanderSane dude, I will commit mass genocide on the members of that religion if it shows up, I'm not sorry

@philipshrimpton8780

8 жыл бұрын

+Cyanakrli good luck making a paddle powered spacecraft :P

@TheOzumat

7 жыл бұрын

+Philip Shrimpton ?v=TXFhL1xF_G8

If the wafer satellites are inexpensive enough; I think that they should send many of them to each extra-solar location, to account for the inevitable accidents that will happen to them. Perhaps they could be made to communicate with eachother, and share processing power, as well as have redundant data storage. Or any other neat ideas that take advantage of there being multiple small pieces in the 'swarm', like acting as an rough array telescope.

Can't wait to go for a coffee on Mars.

@Jonnie153

8 жыл бұрын

see u there soon! 😎

@jmgreetis

8 жыл бұрын

+Phone no you won't

@Jonnie153

8 жыл бұрын

+skittlebeezy who do u think you're talking to m8

I'm all for going " deep-in "

@contohasmr5876

8 жыл бұрын

We need lots of lubrication for it though. We can't go too deep without it.

exploRation really? REALLY science? if you just had to have an acronym, could you not have used the word, i dont know, Reconnaissance?

@crow9836

8 жыл бұрын

Ikr that felt a little cheaty. One does not simply make an acronym with a letter in the middle of the word.

@WanderTheNomad

8 жыл бұрын

They'll do ANYTHING to get an acronym that sounds nice. Besides, there are no rules for acronyms. :^)

@crow9836

8 жыл бұрын

kchen075 Still feels wrong lol

@mauricelewis3881

7 жыл бұрын

Because that would be an initialism, and who would want that?

@carmensolis2923

4 жыл бұрын

Research ?

As a kid I used to think of this. Wonder if I can see it in action during my life.

@kaypeezee

3 жыл бұрын

there are videos of it being tested on tiny planes, not a spacecraft but still pretty cool

LAAAAAAAAAAAAAASERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR SAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIL!

Does this mean we could potentially bring back the Voyagers and Pioneers?

@majoris6954

8 жыл бұрын

Yep! scientists in the 70's already thought that one day humanity would advance far enough to bring back the space probes. It's a pretty cool idea if you think about it

@GamesFromSpace

8 жыл бұрын

No, not realistically. This sort of machine can only be used to push things away from itself (which means, away from the planet where it was built). And even if we used it to send out a "tugboat" to catch up to Voyager 1, that tugboat would be moving far too fast, and would just zoom past the thing we wanted back. And if it did somehow slow down, it would then need to also push the relatively massive Voyager 1 back, which takes a ton of fuel, and would take many decades of waiting. Basically, Voyager 1 (and friends) all have the same kinetic energy they got from the massive rockets used to launch them. Which means you need to get an even bigger rocket out to them, if you wanted to slow them down, and then give them momentum for a return trip.

@PioneerBlue

8 жыл бұрын

+Death Rhino That would be legit as shit, but leaving them out there and keeping track of their progress as we advance beyond them would be a rather nice way to measure how far we've come since the 70's.

@deathrhino4468

8 жыл бұрын

Isn't the golden record sort of like a time capsule?

Wouldn't emitting the laser from a satellite alter the orbit of said satellite according to Newton's third law of motion.

@TheBasil36

7 жыл бұрын

I scrolled down wondering the same thing. if it's pushing a 100kg craft whats stopping it from being pushed back? Or I'm just understanding photons...

@SciAntGaming

7 жыл бұрын

For it to have a reaction on the emitting satellite, the reaction would need to travel backwards through the entire length of laser itself, which I don't think is possible. The force will get dissipated in the incoming laser.

@Prinygod

7 жыл бұрын

+Basil36 it would affect the satellite, but the the satellite is has a lot more mass so it won't move as much as the ship. The satellite can be as big as we want it to be so there is no problem with slapping rockets on it to counter act the opposing force.

@SciAntGaming

7 жыл бұрын

Prinygod That is the correct answer, thanks!

@Prinygod

7 жыл бұрын

Sci_Ant my pleasure

I suspect the spinning of many disks amplified by each other to maybe reach faster than the speed of light can create its own focused gravitational pull similar to creating a black hole.

Get another laser on mars in order to stop the spacecraft. Think building a road. Let's do this shit.

@GPUGambon

8 жыл бұрын

+DoktahArk That's the first thing I thought about when I head about this in an other yt video. Or just try aerobraking, but the ship could tear appart

@George_Davies

8 жыл бұрын

+Gam Bon I considered that too but I imagine airbraking at up to 1.5 percent the speed of light for a 100kg ship heading into an atmosphere that is, at sea level, 0.6% the pressure of our own is probably gonna present some major issues... I hope they figure it out! This field of propulsion research has a lot of potential!

@GPUGambon

8 жыл бұрын

George Davies For interstellar travel, they could probably slow themselves down by detonating an H-bomb, but then they would need a material that could withstand the explosion. They would only need to do it once. The first ship they would send would be mounted with a laser, making the travel there much easier/ making the travel back possible.

@George_Davies

8 жыл бұрын

+Gam Bon Hmmm, that H-bomb idea is interesting but there would still be problems, considering the fragility of the sail equipment, the inefficient energy displacement of such a blast and I guess, potentially, the EM disruption of ship systems caused by the resultant radiation decay. The slow down laser; that would be ideal, I agree. Perhaps there is something to it but for now, the difficulty of assembling a laser array that powerful and massive in orbit of Mars or any other planet is likely inconceivable. Perhaps there's a way we could 'airbrake' using polarised EM sails in tandem with the laser sail tech to gain drag from the remaining polar magnetic field of a planet like Mars? Just a thought, it's probably a dud idea XD

@GPUGambon

8 жыл бұрын

George Davies Well, I just hope people try to build this in my lifetime ^^ there are plenty of things to discover that could help this technology become a reality. You might not even need to put a laser in orbit around mars, just a very reflective mirror.

So let me get straight... They're making a deathstar?

@StopGooN

8 жыл бұрын

+Anarchy91 but square shaped : P

@MrJ3

8 жыл бұрын

+StopGooN so a borg cube?

@willb5278

8 жыл бұрын

+Anarchy91 *Puts on Pedantic Hat* I mean... kinda? The wavelength they'd pick for this kind of application probably wouldn't go through an atmosphere too well. Waste too much energy heating up the upper atmo and you don't have quite enough punch to melt that city block you're aiming at. That's right, city block, though it may be 10km x 10km, the power of such a system is only about equal to that of the space shuttle at liftoff. So... dangerous sure, but not planet or even city-busting. *Takes off Pedantic hat* That's a much cooler way of putting it.

@StopGooN

8 жыл бұрын

so they'd make a square shaped deathstar that doesnt work as intended >.

@willb5278

8 жыл бұрын

StopGooN No, it would work exactly as intended. It's just intended to point at asteroids millions of miles away in hard vacuum, instead of the planet circling below it.

Need elaboration: 1 Solar power is directed radially, while laser power is parallel. 2 If a laser emitter is orbital, it is low mass, so it would need a chemical reaction engine to counteract the photon recoil force in the other direction. If stationed on the moon, you have a massive backup, but need to have pivoting supports for laser projectors because lunar motion is always redirecting the surface (no fixed position like Arecibo PR).

Awesome

Send a probe with laser on it to land on mars, then shoot your ship toward mars with laser from earth, and slow it down later using a laser you landed on mars.

@SolarShado

8 жыл бұрын

+Dorian Tomašinec Probably be better to have it in Martian orbit. It'd need less fuel to get there, have better access to sunlight, less loss of laser energy to the Martian atmosphere, and easier design constraints due to not having to survive atmospheric entry and landing.

@doriandodo99

8 жыл бұрын

+Adrian Todd That is even better idea.. :)

@BigCrowsVideos

6 жыл бұрын

If you fire a laser on orbit, it'll fly away

In other words, its going to be a LONG time before we actually do this.....

The slow down is easy. Have a second set of sails that are behind the laser and usually flat. When you need to slow lower the primary sails and raise the anterior sails. The anterior sails wouldn't need to be as large as the primary set. Force stopping in the forward direction and starting backwards would slow the ship quickly.

This technology was super important for the Dies Irae Contingent that we launched off Titan.

de-star death-star de-star death-star coincidence i think not lol

@YouNameItGaming

5 жыл бұрын

I know I'm a bit late, but it uses a massive laser too! Definitely not a coincidence

@randalllewis6996

5 жыл бұрын

and so it begins...

@sleekoduck

4 жыл бұрын

Starkiller Base: the Last Red Planet.

@Aurumk1

4 жыл бұрын

It isn't.

Alpha Centauri in 15 years thats mind boggling awesome!!!

@calebboud90

8 жыл бұрын

+Richard Driskill such a party pooper

@_ch1pset

8 жыл бұрын

+Richard Driskill actually no. odds are the spacecraft won't hit anything. take a look at the voyager crafts, new horizons, especially dawn. All travelled through the asteroid belt and hit nothing. that's because space is mostly empty when it comes to matter. it isn't, "just theoretical" to move an object at relativistic speeds, we do that all the time with atomic particles. it's proven science, we know it works, we can predict what will happen. and we know how much energy is needed to accelerate something the size of the space shuttle to 10% the speed of light. it's about the same as it takes to get the same craft from the ground to escape velocity, according to NASA.

@RealLuckless

8 жыл бұрын

+Richard Driskill So we sent lots of them out there... After all the tech required to build the local infrastructure is basically Von Neumann Probe replication level kind of thing that can harvest and process materials in orbit, so once the array is constructed and ready to start flinging stuff out that far, then the costs of building the probes 'locally' is next to nothing. Even if the odds are 99.99% that the probes will fail en-route, then that still means that building enough of them and eventually one gets all the way there. Plus, 'comm-array-chain' probes make some of the most sense. Keeping up a steady stream of new small probes where each probe gather's its data and collects data from the probes in front of it to push back down the line. Each probe becomes a relay and backup for the probes ahead of it, and as they close in on the system they start to split up and target flybys of different objects. Getting a probe that has the on board power to get a clear signal all the way back to earth in one shot is, well, kind of a large and heavy thing, which would make it far harder to accelerate. And while you're sending out that never ending steam of probes? Well what if each one also had a small laser on it? The 'first wave' of probes would pass through the system, but they would also be working to slow down those coming behind. Eventually you have enough probes going slow enough that they can join up with each other and build a laser array in the target system... Then they can start catching stuff that is on its way in...

@moritzh6876

8 жыл бұрын

+RealLuckless I love that last part with the probes slowing each other down and forming a new giant laser :D

@_ch1pset

8 жыл бұрын

Richard Driskill I don't think you understand the scope of your own argument

Laser sails seem more like a space railway, rather than a propulsion. The only way to feasibly stop the ship would be to have a second giant square death laser at the destination to slow the ship down. But hey, as a means to get stuff to and from intrastellar locations, it's great.

if you were able to reflect a portion back to the to the source and make it bounce back and forth by using another mirror you could potentially convert a much higher portion of the lights energy into kinetic energy. though that mode of operation would only work in a single direction of thrust, so a system of additional mirror sattelites around the sun might be needed. since those other mirror sattelites arent supposed to move they can be much heavier wich might make production easier (but getting them up more expensive), course corrections will eventually be needed but could be performed like regular solar sails. I understand the level of precision needed to make the light bounce back and forth between two mirrors over such huge distances might be hard to archieve. (in case anyone is wondering about conservation of energy and isnt up to date on their physics, no light bouncing back and forth between two perfect mirrors wouldnt be able to accelerate the mirros infinitly, as the mirror starts to move the light will change freqency, in this case the frequency gets smaller, slightly everytime it bounces off it wich reduces the energy of each photon (E=h*f). in this ideal scenario all the energy of the photons will eventually be converted into kintetic energy of the mirrors). probably a far fetched mega project and nothing for the near future. additionally a laser system like this would make a great weapon in case xeno scum tries to invade.

50-70 gigawatt laser? Not happening anytime soon, the largest laser we have ever managed to build and successfully test is the MIRACL which at about 1 megawatt but it can only operate for about one minute at a time before it overheats.... this is a chemical laser too which means it needs fuel to operate from and does not work on electricity alone, to get 70 gigawatts worth of laser using this technology you would need about 70,000 MIRACL sized lasers, each with their own fuel supply and in space, but of course this laser and many other large scale lasers have duty cycles of somewhere around 20%, basically this means that you need 5x as many lasers to get that 100% duty cycle you need, so you really need 350,000 MIRACL sized lasers to start with, and remember now that for each and every one of these lasers you are going to need to fuel them, they burn fuel just like rocket engines do although they use typically ethylene, nitrogen triflouride and deuterium. So figure that you'll need about a million tonnes of each substance per laser array (of 5 so it can have a 100% duty cycle) so every lasers of the 350,000 lasers you have will have about a million tonnes of fuel which will be about what you'll need for a 48 hour runtime. Oh, did I mention that each one of these lasers will require a beam director that can properly align and focus the beam, the relitively lightweight one they are using with the MIRACL laser currently is the sealite beam director which "only" adds about 30,000 pounds of mass to each laser. So yeah, it's a great idea but it could never happen, it would be FAR too expensive just to get the stuff up there for one space probe but with the way those lasers work you would have to send up 350 million tonnes or so of fuel for each propulsion attempt and that is being rather conservative and not counting the vehicles and their fuel required to get them into orbit. Also about this special material this giant sail is supposed to be made from, it can't be conductive or the induced currents from the sun's magnetic field will vaporize it just like what happened in nasa's tethered sattelite experiment, so it has to be non conductive, it also has to be a micron thick? that's 0.00003937 inches thick, that's the size of the thinnest portion of a human red blood cell, it's also about 5 times smaller an object than a visible light microscope can discern due to the diffraction limit of light, so you have to have this sail that weighs as much as your craft, is strong enough to take a giant push from gigawatts of concentrated laser energy, likely be 100 or so square kilometers but not rip during deployment or during pushing operations , non conductive, thermally disapative in a vaccum so it won't get blasted into it's constituent atoms when it really heats up and those atoms start wanting to jump off the surface and into the thin plasma of space, and it has to be able to survive a launch, decelleration, and any of the many space debris such a massive object is likely to encounter as well as to be able to be steered out of plane with our sun to maintain a course in a direction we choose... I'm sure lots of people will say "oh carbon nanotubes will do that" well... it turns out those carbon nanotubes ARE conductive, no where near as strong as we thought, and next to impossible to produce with any uniformity and are easily broken with very little shear force.... While you could possibly build such a sattelite array over only a few thousand years, or a few hundred if every man woman and child on the planet were to drop what they are doing and go right to work on these lasers for the rest of their lives without taking time to do anything else, you simply can't make the sail required to make the whole thing viable, there is no material that will do what they need it to do to make this work and there never will be, it would be nice if the universe worked in a way that it were possible, but it's not. They need to round file this idea and come up with something that is actually practical and wouldn't take millenia to build even if it were possible.

@nitishjain5393

8 жыл бұрын

I salute you.. 👏

@kg4boj

8 жыл бұрын

Nitish Jain for what?

@chewynickerson

8 жыл бұрын

+Peter “Crackpot Pete” Carlson thanks, Buzz Killington.....

@ivokolev1988

8 жыл бұрын

And it looked so easy on the animation above... Thanks for the sobering up :)

@nitishjain5393

8 жыл бұрын

+Peter “Crackpot Pete” Carlson terminating the lie.. I suppose..

I feel you failed to stress just how infeasible this tech is atm.

@General12th

8 жыл бұрын

+Niki Herl Large, Moon-bound rockets were horrendously unfeasible using technology from a century ago. Sure, we could create tiny rockets that thrusted for a few seconds, and the math behind larger rocketry worked out, but we didn't have anywhere near enough industrial capacity to build the real thing yet.

@zemerick

8 жыл бұрын

+Jordan Shank Problem here is the physics just doesn't work out. Not even close. Absolutely any material known would easily be vaporized by the laser ( yet alone just melted or reduced structural integrity ), the acceleration force would be in the thousands of G ( which would easily destroy anything )...it's just absolutely ludicrous as proposed. It makes the nuclear bomb powered idea sound down right good.

@comicbstudios

8 жыл бұрын

+zemerick13 thousands of Gs are survivable for many electronic system, for example the electronics inside a artillary shell are rated at over 15,000 g, even some watches can survive 5000g

@zemerick

8 жыл бұрын

Comic B Studios I did miss that. While it would take some very careful engineering, the basic electronics could survive it. It would greatly limit anything that could be sent in this method, but it's possible as far as just the G force goes. The laser energy was the bigger concern though, since it's in the vaporize massive amounts of aluminum in a fraction of a second levels.

The white bird rose up, once again, laser cannon in its wings. It was a moving sight. In my heart, though, I wished it didn't have to be used in war.

If they had lasers on the mars end as well, sent there before sending anything by laser, and set up ahead of time. They could use the lasers on that end to counter act the lasers on this end. It would also mean return trips could be just as fast. A Laser Tram System.

i wonder how many people here played kerbal space program yet. i am sure it's a nerdy crowd here anyways

@thesunpouncergamingchannel2654

8 жыл бұрын

+TaoriUTS I have :D

@agjakku

8 жыл бұрын

My favourite game :D

@tonygunk424

8 жыл бұрын

+TaoriUTS Awesome game.

@erikthegodeatingpenguin2335

8 жыл бұрын

+TaoriUTS Dammit! I was telling myself that I am not going to play ksp today, but then I read your comment! Are there addiction control centers for this?

@TaoriUTS

8 жыл бұрын

haha. the feedback amuses me so much. at least all fellow players are aware then that the problem is not accelerating to 0,25 planck but braking down the speed when you reached your destination because quite obviously aero braking will not be an option.

If my calculations are right, this Totally-Not-Death-Star has about the same firepower as 700 Iowa-class battleships. So new plan : Aim at Earth, and ask for a small not-blowing-up fee.

@666Tomato666

8 жыл бұрын

+András Bíró that's a common theme for all fast interplanetary ships (and interstellar) if you can quickly travel between planets, you have enough energy to make big holes in them too

@andrasbiro3007

8 жыл бұрын

666Tomato666 Yes, but not all drives have long range and precise aim built into them.

Dr. Forward described exactly how such a laser sail craft could decelerate. It's important to note that both Earth and whatever your destination is are both moving so it's not a two dimensional scenario where we're pushing the sailcraft directly towards the target but rather at an angle. To decelerate, a portion of the sail would detach, the beam from Earth would reflect off the detached section onto the sailcraft in the desired direction. Remember the beam from Earth would be at an angle from the path of the sailcraft and the path of the detached section. Dr. Forward also proposed another detachable sail segment so that the sailcraft could be propelled back to Earth again with a beam from Earth. There are three problems with this plan, the a ility to accurately aim and focus the beam across such distance, the lack of coordination in that you can't verify everyone is in place before firing the beam and somebody on Earth remembering to fire the laser beam after potentially decades.

Deceleration could probably be achieved by ejecting the larger part of the sail and using it as a reflector to slow the remaining portion. That would require a much larger sail, though.

KSP mod for this where are you?!?!

@DragonsAndDragons777

4 жыл бұрын

Idontknow

God, I have been reading about 'breakthroughs' in space travel for 20 years - sooner or later you realize that all the ideas require resources and investment that just simply would never happen in our botched X factor justin Beiber culture.

@arturocevallossoto5203

8 жыл бұрын

+Adam -亚当- So are you doing something to make this happen or are you just going to complain?

@evacoolkid6593

8 жыл бұрын

+Ban Ki-moon epic lol

@McMurchie

8 жыл бұрын

+Ban Ki-moon wow - utterly trolled.Helping raise awareness that the current approach isn't working IS a contribution. And yes I am - a couple, one is a more realistic but resource intensive proposal with simulations the other is an investigative methodology - it's on my home page. but I don't know why I'm wasting my time telling you.

@DoktahArk

8 жыл бұрын

+Adam -亚当- That's Ban Ki-moon you're talking to, dude.

@McMurchie

8 жыл бұрын

DoktahArk heh, that would be pretty awesome if it was the real Ki-moon trolling peeps on youtube. A: Sir!, we are late for peace treaty talks with Syria. B:"fuck em, I've got to school this dude first".

Did a paper and model of this for high school science fair. The teacher said it was impossible and a guy from NASA said he could not follow my train of thought. So, I shelved the whole thing and went out and got a job. IN 1965 !!!!!

Bussard ramjet is a way to slow down the space ship. Bussard ramjet was explored as a way to provide propulsion to starships but it turns out it produces more drag than thrust, but that's perfect for a breaking system. Just reverse the engine orientation so it benefits from both drag and thrust in the direction opposite of motion.