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
Since space is basically a vacuum, there is nothing to cause friction and slow you down.
A solar sail uses light and solar wind to add very very small amounts of acceleration constantly. Over a long time period, that adds up.
It’s like the question “do you want $1 million dollars now or start with one penny and double the amount every day”. The $1 million is a rocket that accelerates quickly but once it’s done, that’s how fast you are going. The penny starts really tiny but over time, always adding and never subtracting, you end up going faster.
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