Quote:
Originally Posted by TLAM Strike
The harshness of Luna can work for it as an outpost. Think solar collectors. What are they made of? Silicon. Lunar regolith contains lots of Silica that can be refined in to Silicon. So now that we got the mother of all solar farms on Luna what do we do?
We hook it to a laser...
... no it is not going to be my "Death Star".... (that comes latter...  )
we shoot it as the rear end of spaceships to propel them! Either hitting solar sails allowing the photons of the laser to push them or hitting propellant on the spaceship burning it instead of using a (heavy) engine on the ship. |
I don't really see how using the laser to ignite propellant would gain you anything, since most of the mass that you're accelerating is still going to be propellant. And I'm not familiar with any really workable solar sail materials (yet). Also, your solar collector will only be working half the time. The rest of the time, it will be on the dark side of the moon. How well would that coincide with being able to point it in the direction you want to push the spacecraft?
Oh well, either way, Moon or Mars, it's not going to happen anyway. Not any time soon, on government funding. Maybe if some rich folks could start investing in it, without having to worry about seeing a return on it in the near future.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TLAM Strike
Emplacement? Theoretical it could put it's self on the moon. Jon's law cuts both ways.
Stick a big metal rod in ground, stick the rail gun around it (like a ramrod in a musket) then fire the rail gun at an insane power level.
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My comments were based on the hypothetical Iranian/Chinese mass driver you mentioned. Do they have the technology to build it and get it there?