DailyDirt: Riding Through Space On A Beam Of Light

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

If you're looking forward to watching The Martian movie, you probably enjoy watching rockets blast off into space and seeing big explosions. However, really long distance space travel could be much less entertaining without rockets unless you like looking at the glow of an ion thruster. Spacecraft using the momentum of light won't even glow, but they could be part of more and more space ships. Check out a few of these projects. After you've finished checking out those links, take a look at our Daily Deals for cool gadgets and other awesome stuff.
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Filed Under: cubesats, graphene, ikaros, lightsail, microwaves, propulsion, solar sail, space, space exploration, spacecraft
Companies: planetary society


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  • identicon
    Pixelation, 16 Jun 2015 @ 8:51pm

    " A yet-unexplained phenomenon creates propulsion when a laser hits a sheet of graphene sponge in a vacuum."

    A sponge worthy spacecraft.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Ninja (profile), 17 Jun 2015 @ 4:27am

      Re:

      I am deeply disappointed that the first comment in this article didn't include SpongeBob and square rockets.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Ninja (profile), 17 Jun 2015 @ 4:28am

    A yet-unexplained phenomenon creates propulsion when a laser hits a sheet of graphene sponge in a vacuum

    Graphene is quickly becoming the new WD40 or something. I won't be surprised if somebody finds out graphene cures cancer, AIDS and stupidity. I lie, the last one would make me skeptical.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Mason Wheeler (profile), 17 Jun 2015 @ 7:41am

    Interesting, but I think the most significant thing in the graphene article is the last paragraph, where it says that someone's discovered (or is coming close to working out) a process that brings down the cost of graphene manufacturing by a factor of 1000.

    Look at what just a few researchers with the considerable resources required to manufacture graphene have already come up with. It's kind of amazing. But make graphene cheap enough that any scientist can get his hands on a few kilos of the stuff, and we'd have a new Industrial Revolution on our hands!

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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