I just found this article on space.com. It tells of a substance NASA is creating that is so light that the pressure of light can move it! I would like to see a PC case made out of this! You could throw your PC case to the moon! Here is the article. http://www.space.com/news/lasersail_000301.html AstrumPreliator " "
i can see it now ... the ultimate UFO mod ... 4 panaflo 120's in the bottom of the case, exhausting ... youd have to tether it to yer desk .. lol
Imagine if you brought your case to a club or somehting with lots of moving flashing lights..... Your case would go flying around the room! I want this stuff now! I'm going to build a car out it! And a computer! And I'll build a city!
most likely, they tested it in a vacuum. I could be wrong (if I am I'm sure I'll be pleasantly corrected if I am), but I'm pretty sure they couldn't prove air didn't move it if it weren't tested in a vacuum. The material could still make for an incredibly light case though... Hook up 24 120mm fans, with a remote-controlled fanbus, viola! Remote controlled hovercase.
Four panaflo 120's would blow it to alpha centauri. Attach a web cam to your case and send back the data =). AstrumPreliator "Deep space computer explorer"
BTW, yah, that was tested in a vacuum. But hey, I can dream can't I? Let's see... Aluminum case to LAN party, 29lbs, Substance-X to LAN party, 5.1lbs (5lbs of hardware, .1 lb of case ) AstrumPreliator "Making the impossible plausable"
Just as a matter of interest, why hasn't anyone made a case out of carbon composite? Think foruma 1 cars. Uber light and uber strong..........and it'd look kewl with black gloss and a plexi window
Sorry but why would you want to? lol Me thinks formula1 cars... me thinks style and speed... me thinks expensive... question answered
Ok so you use a super light wieght material as a sail but how do you get the laser beam to drag all the weight of instuments and whatever else they put on spacecraft? Anyway pretty interesting to know that you can surf laser beams. Another thing it reminds me of is the laser powered 'rocket'. It uses a very high powered laser beam and directs it at the base of the 'rocket' which is specially shaped to focus the beam at a certain point below it. It heats the air so that it explodes (like lightning does) and forces the object upwards. I read about it on howstuffworks but can't seem to find anything about it anymore. EDIT: Here is it: Light propulsion!
The initial propulsion would be chemical rockets to get it above the earths G pull. After that, the sail would be expanded and the lasers would shoot at it. The force of the laser on the point of impact would determine how fast you go. about 10% the speed of light they estimate. And yes, carbon composite is EXPENSIVE. I looked for some a while ago for a non-computer related project. Needless to say, race cars can have their fill of it. =). AstrumPreliator "Stuff"
Anyone remember those things you were shown in Physics class, which span around in a glass sphere when exposed to light?
I would think that it's a matter of size vs weight. They would simply use a huge sail. This would be kinda like the way a Zeplin or a Hot-air balloon works. Also in space there is no drag, or gravity for that matter. So all you need is a small push and you keep going till something stops you. So with the laser sail you are basically providing the little push that you need.
This would make sense except for the fact that they were talking about using a cone shaped 'sail' where the laser beam infact only acted on the point in the very centre of the of the cone. That way if the spacecraft moved a little to the side the laser would be able to to push it back on track. It would also enable them to steer the craft just by slowly re-adjusting the position of the laser. The problem I see with this is that if the beam is only acting on one point of the cone it doesn't matter how large or how lightwieght it is (so long as it's big enough to allow suffucient steering) because the force of the laser is only being applied to one point on the sail. This means that the size of the sail doesn't really matter so the sail shouldn't need to be ultra low in density anyway. But I'd like to see something achieve a 10th the speed of light. That's more than a 1000 times faster than anything man made has ever gone!
I thought the lazer was to super heat the region of air behind the object and create a thruster type thingy.... they had a demo of a new shuttle type about 5 years ago, a little silver dish which the lazer heated the air underneath and it shot into the air, but didnt stay up long.... and all the power needed and everything they said it was gonna be ages till it was possible to do this life sized. -ƒlamika
Nope it was tested out side and air had nothing to do with making it move. It was all lite that made it fly up about 30feet. It looked like a metal oil funnel with a stick in the middle of it to keep it steady. Then the light was pulsed vary quickly and it just flew straight up. It was pretty cool but decades off from ne real use.
ƒlamika, it was a different design. This one is for interstellar travel. No air in space and all. That was more of an improved jet idea. This laser just shoots light which pushes this extremely light material. AstrumPreliator "Stuff"
