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
8 events
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| Jan 17, 2019 at 4:07 | history | edited | Tom Spilker | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
Corrected units on solar wind velocity
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| Jan 17, 2019 at 4:07 | comment | added | Tom Spilker | @grizzly As they say in the medical profession: OOPS!! Yes indeed, that should be km/s—thanks for catching that! I'll edit in the correct units. And yes, the other numbers are all correct. That was just a typo in the units. | |
| Jan 17, 2019 at 0:31 | comment | added | grizzly | You mentioned that the speed of solar wind is 400 m/s. Isn’t that 400 km/s by any chance? If so, are the other calculations stil correct? | |
| Jan 16, 2019 at 23:34 | vote | accept | CommunityBot | ||
| Jan 16, 2019 at 23:12 | history | edited | Tom Spilker | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
Correct one number
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| Jan 16, 2019 at 23:07 | comment | added | Tom Spilker | You might not be able to upvote an answer, but as the author of the question you can accept an answer as answering the question to your satisfaction. | |
| Jan 16, 2019 at 23:02 | comment | added | user28781 | I would upvote your answer but I don't have a high enough reputation score yet. I agree with you that using the energy radiated from the Sun would be better than using the energy of the solar wind. Yet, one advantage that this type of photonic laser thruster would have is if/when the spacecraft would travel out into interstellar space, at which point it could use the charged particles flying around in interstellar space to continue to accelerate the spacecraft. Also, I think a proton gun could add to the thrust by shooting protons directly into the thruster. | |
| Jan 16, 2019 at 21:04 | history | answered | Tom Spilker | CC BY-SA 4.0 |