Reply To: Global Warming

[Brian H]

Tasmodevil44 wrote: I never thought of that. But yes, an incredibly powerful focus fusion laser could theoretically be used to accelerate a solar sailing craft to Mars. Or beyond Neptune, Pluto, even beyond the solar system.

I don’t see why you’d bother. Take along a tonne of decaborane and an FF generator or ten, harvest a bit of hydrogen along the way from the interstellar medium, and you could get far more power and acceleration and control and options. With a solar sail, you can’t wander out of the beam or you’re helpless until a signal can be aimed back to the source and the laser re-directed. Braking is tricky, too. You have to pop a counter-mirror out front and turn the sail around to get the bounce-back, or SLT.