Laser Propulsion: Earth To Mars in 3 Days?

(Image Source: NASA 360)

By Jay Bennett, Popular Mechanics

There's no argument in the astronomical community—rocket-propelled spacecraft can take us only so far. The SLS will likely take us to Mars, and future rockets might be able to help us reach even more distant points in the solar system. But Voyager 1 only just left the solar system, and it was launched in 1977. The problem is clear: we cannot reach other stars with rocket fuel. We need something new.

"We will never reach even the nearest stars with our current propulsion technology in even 10 millennium," writes Physics Professor Philip Lubin of the University of California Santa Barbara in a research paper titled A Roadmap to Interstellar Flight. "We have to radically rethink our strategy or give up our dreams of reaching the stars, or wait for technology that does not exist."

Lubin received funding from NASA last year to study the possibility of using photonic laser thrust, a technology that does exist, as a new system to propel spacecraft to relativistic speeds, allowing them to travel farther than ever before.

More with Mini-Video on Lubin's Laser Propulsion Proposal -
Link >>> http://www.popularmechanics.com/space/deep-space/a19604/nasa-physicists-say-photonic-propulsion-could-send-a-spacecraft-to-mars-in-3-days/

Full Video on Lubin's Laser Propulsion Proposal:
Link >>> http://livestream.com/viewnow/niac2015seattle

"A Roadmap to Interstellar Flight" by Philip Lubin:
Link >>> http://www.deepspace.ucsb.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/A-Roadmap-to-Interstellar-Flight-15-o.pdf

More on Laser Propulsion ---
Link 1 >>> http://www.popularmechanics.com/space/a15545/photonic-laser-thrust-space-engine/
Link 2 >>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_propulsion

Related Blog Post ---

"Supersonic Laser Propulsion." 2014 Nov. 13.
Link >>> http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2014/11/supersonic-laser-propulsion.html

Source: Popular Mechanics Magazine.
              2016 February 25.

                                                              
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