
Breakthrough Starshot: Mission to Alpha Centauri - tgflynn
http://www.centauri-dreams.org/?p=35402
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tgflynn
There are some pretty far out concepts here 300 GW for 30 minutes, that's the
output of 300 nuclear power reactors or the energy equivalent of a 100 kT
nuclear explosion. Focussed onto a sail that's 100's of atoms thick to
generate an acceleration of 60000 g. I can imagine a sail that thin but I
doubt it could withstand the forces exerted by the slightest inhomegenity in
the beam, not to mention that the slightest speck of dust or deviation from
near perfect reflectivity would vaporise it instantly.

Exciting idea though that we could even think about sending a probe to another
star within the life span of current generations.

