Timeline for Could protons in the Sun's solar wind be used to create a photonic laser thruster for a spacecraft?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
13 events
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| Jan 17, 2019 at 18:01 | history | tweeted | twitter.com/StackSpaceExp/status/1085960279014494211 | ||
| Jan 17, 2019 at 15:00 | comment | added | Magic Octopus Urn | @TomSpilker that's a ton of food-for-thought :). I'll have to look up Planck's constant and a few other terms. Appreciated as always Mr. Spilker! | |
| Jan 16, 2019 at 23:34 | vote | accept | CommunityBot | ||
| Jan 16, 2019 at 21:04 | answer | added | Tom Spilker | timeline score: 2 | |
| Jan 16, 2019 at 20:42 | comment | added | user28781 | @Tom Spilker, I did not know that, thank you for pointing that out. | |
| Jan 16, 2019 at 19:32 | comment | added | Tom Spilker | @MagicOctopusUrn See my response to HRIATEXP above. | |
| Jan 16, 2019 at 19:31 | comment | added | Tom Spilker | @HRIATEXP Indeed there is momentum exchange from a flashlight's photon emission. The photon's momentum is given by p = h/lambda, where p is momentum, h is Planck's constant, and lambda is the photon's wavelength. The atom emitting the photon rebounds with the same magnitude of momentum but in the opposite direction, and that momentum is eventually transferred to the flashlight as a whole. Most flashlights have collimating mirrors that exchange momentum when the photons reflect from it. The net reaction momentum has the same magnitude as the emergent beam's. | |
| Jan 16, 2019 at 17:20 | comment | added | Magic Octopus Urn | @HRIATEXP ahh... I understand more now, I know very little about photon physics. | |
| Jan 16, 2019 at 16:34 | comment | added | user28781 | @Magic Octopus Urn, I don't think it is exactly the same thing, even though laser light would be coming out of the thruster. From what I've studied about photonic laser thrusters, when the photons are reflected, some of their momentum/kinetic energy will be transferred to the mirror and thus to the spacecraft. As far as I know, there is no momentum/kinetic energy transfer to a flashlight when the light it creates exits from it. | |
| Jan 16, 2019 at 14:30 | comment | added | Magic Octopus Urn | Isn't this akin to shining a laser out of the back of a spacecraft-- or a flashlight, or am I over-simplifying? | |
| Jan 16, 2019 at 13:47 | history | edited | Organic Marble |
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| Jan 16, 2019 at 8:23 | comment | added | SF. | I think you just won the competition for a concept of engine with worst thrust ;-) Seems like it would work but with scarce piconewtons of thrust. | |
| Jan 16, 2019 at 5:23 | history | asked | user28781 | CC BY-SA 4.0 |