fstab
  • Communities
  • Create Post
  • Create Community
  • heart
    Support Lemmy
  • search
    Search
  • Login
  • Sign Up
Lee Duna@lemmy.nz to Space@beehaw.orgEnglish · 2 years ago

Solar sails could reach Mars in just 26 days

phys.org

external-link
message-square
15
fedilink
61
external-link

Solar sails could reach Mars in just 26 days

phys.org

Lee Duna@lemmy.nz to Space@beehaw.orgEnglish · 2 years ago
message-square
15
fedilink
A recent study submitted to Acta Astronautica and currently available on the arXiv preprint server explores the potential for using aerographite solar sails for traveling to Mars and interstellar space, which could dramatically reduce both the time and fuel required for such missions.
  • NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    22
    ·
    2 years ago

    How long would it take to send just Elon?

    • comedy@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      12
      ·
      2 years ago

      His fat head would probably slow things down a good bit, unfortunately

      • flora_explora@beehaw.org
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        edit-2
        2 years ago

        Weird comment. Lookism isn’t cool, even if targeted at horrible and powerful people like Elon Musk. Also, how would more mass/larger surface slow anything down in space where there is no air resistance/drag??

        • comedy@kbin.social
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          6
          ·
          2 years ago

          I was referencing his ego (“fat head”). Save the scolding for your undoubtedly large collection of cats.

        • StringTheory@beehaw.org
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          2 years ago

          https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/fathead

          In common North American usage “fat head” and “big head” imply hubris or pride, as well.

        • anguo@lemmy.ca
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          2 years ago

          More mass needs more energy to accelerate or decelerate. If you change the object’s mass without changing thrust (I guess sail size here), it will definitely take more time to get there.

          • flora_explora@beehaw.org
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            2 years ago

            Ah OK, so mass is important but surface isn’t, right?

            • anguo@lemmy.ca
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              2 years ago

              That’s right!

            • Declamatie@mander.xyz
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              2 years ago

              In case of a solar sail however, surface is important.

Space@beehaw.org

space@beehaw.org

Subscribe from Remote Instance

Create a post
You are not logged in. However you can subscribe from another Fediverse account, for example Lemmy or Mastodon. To do this, paste the following into the search field of your instance: !space@beehaw.org

News and findings about our cosmos.


Subcommunity of Science


This community’s icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

Visibility: Public
globe

This community can be federated to other instances and be posted/commented in by their users.

  • 82 users / day
  • 208 users / week
  • 440 users / month
  • 1.02K users / 6 months
  • 1 local subscriber
  • 7.84K subscribers
  • 601 Posts
  • 1.28K Comments
  • Modlog
  • mods:
  • alyaza [they/she]@beehaw.org
  • Gaywallet (they/it)@beehaw.org
  • wintrparkgrl@beehaw.org
  • Chris Remington@beehaw.org
  • BE: 0.19.5
  • Modlog
  • Instances
  • Docs
  • Code
  • join-lemmy.org