#laser sail

[nowscience-blog]

[startswithabang]

Ask Ethan: Could an atmosphere slow down a runaway starship?

"[M]y dad and I have been discussing the possibilities of spacecraft like the ones Yuri Milner and Steven Hawking are proposing. My dad speculated on using atmospheric drag to slow the spaceship down once it arrived at a planet. I attest that it would have no chance of slowing down appreciably and would surely result in a giant explosion. Which one is it?"

Earlier this month, Yuri Milner and Stephen Hawking teamed up to announce the Breakthrough Starshot, a $100 million investment in technology that would build a laser array to propel a thin, light "laser sail" spacecraft to approximately 20% the speed of light. If we can achieve these speeds and sufficiently aim these sails at the nearest star systems, we'll arrive at our destinations within a single human lifetime. But we'll still be going at 20% the speed of light when we get there, or about 1,000 times as fast as the meteors that burn up in our own planet's atmosphere. Is there any chance for slowing these spacecraft down once they arrive, or are they doomed to burn up (or miss completely and leave the galaxy) upon arrival? A reverse laser array might work, but anything involving atmospheric drag would be a disaster!

[magicboom92]

RUS

[magicboom92]

LASER