The best idea right now on how to travel fast in space if you would want to reach very far (like outside of our solar system), seems to be solar sails.
But why would light waves alone from the sun be able to push anything at all on a human scale and even more so at really high speeds, like 10-50 % of the speed of light is numbers I’ve seen, which seems insane. Of course this haven’t been done yet, but the basic idea seems to be based on solid science.
I don’t understand how this could work even in theory tho. Like light waves have energy so I could see how that could apply force to an object, but just a small amount. Space have no resistance so if you push something you can keep it going for pretty much forever.
But how do people think that it could get you speeds that even mattered in space and even more so those mind boggling speeds?
In: Physics
Why buy a sailboat over a motorboat? The motorboat will be a lot faster but you need heavy engines and lots of expensive fuel which you need to keep refilling all the time.
The sailboat won’t be as fast but the power is free and you don’t need to stop at a refuelling station en route…
Of course water has resistance so your top speed is limited. In space there is no resistance so the speed can keep building for as long as you let it…
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