Old and busted: Solid rocket boosters.
New hotness: Photonic Laser Thrusters.
So, how long before photon torpedoes, warp engines and phasers turn up?
Fffftt! :rolleyes:
A Press Release.
Show me the Scientific American article, & I’ll believe it.
Press Releases are not peer reviewed.
Welp, NASA gave them $75 large last May to begin developing this puppy, and an additional $600 large last September to continue developing it–it doesn’t sound like total puffery to me. How likely is it that they’d announce non-reproducible results, or pull a Korean clone-type hoax?
The May press release has this:
New Scientist do ya?
Interesting, I wonder what the power consumption is, and if it’d be possible to use that for manned missions in the near future.
I can’t imagine that the consumption is small, but I think the real question is whether or not the power-to-weight ratio makes it that much better than solid rocket boosters once the weight of the batteries is factored into the overall weight of the craft. Mind you, even if the ratio is poorer, they can use solar panels to recharge the batteries which still makes it a far better alternative to fuel.
Dude, life just gets cooler. It makes me wish I were born like…now…or 25 years from now…assuming things don’t get so politically screwed up, that is.
Well it’s a neat idea to provide small corrections to satellite formations without introducing particles/atoms that could interfere with their operation and measuring their relative distances. It’s not going to revolutionize space light though. Not if it solely operates at the micro Newton level.
It wouldn’t matter if they’d invented a working warp drive; we’re still paying $10,000 a pound just to get into low earth orbit.