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5 votes
2 answers
213 views

Using lasers to reach the Karman line

I've just seen this Anton Petrov video: New Type of Laser Levitation Could Help Us Explore the Mesosphere. It's about this new form of levitation that uses lasers to heat up the air underneath a craft,...
R. Hall's user avatar
  • 822
1 vote
1 answer
156 views

Would an incandescent light bulb be more efficient than a laser for photon propulsion?

In an incandescent light bulb pretty much almost all of the input power is radiated as photons. While perhaps 10% of the power is useful for human vision and the rest are longer wavelengths, it's all ...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 149k
4 votes
1 answer
215 views

Could a laser ablation-based propulsion system really accelerate an object to 0.001 c?

Comments below this answer suggest that a laser ablation-based propulsion system, where the laser is separate from the object to be accelerated, could accelerate an object to about $\frac{1}{1000}$ of ...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 149k
1 vote
1 answer
368 views

laser propulsion from a lagrange point? [closed]

Simply put, would it make sense to place laser in space to propel a solar sail? Thinking about solar sails, and the inefficiencies of sending a laser through the atmosphere, I wondered if it made ...
mklauber's user avatar
  • 113
11 votes
4 answers
5k views

Laser propulsion possible?

Is it possible to get an impulse, if you shoot at a solar sails with lasers mounted on the spaceship? If so, why doesn't a laser create a force, if it fires/releases a photon? Is the impulse ...
Quonux's user avatar
  • 421