Scientists propose to deliver ships to Mars in just 45 days using a powerful laser
Do you think the laser is capable of sending a spacecraft to Mars? If you think this is impossible, then the engineers at McGill University will disagree with you. It was they who proposed a rather unusual concept for the delivery of spacecraft through the use of lasers that will accelerate ships in orbit.
And in this way they will reach the orbit of Mars in just 45 days instead of 6-8 months of travel on traditional chemical rockets. I will tell you about this unusual concept in the current material.
How lasers can accelerate spaceships
Back in 2018, NASA challenged engineers to develop a mission to Mars to deliver at least one tonne of payload in less than 45 days.
So, as part of the work on this task, the McGill concept was developed, which involves the use of an entire array infrared lasers with a diameter of 10 meters, with a wavelength of 1 micron and a power of 100 MW, which will be located on Earth.
These powerful lasers will send a beam into orbit where the spacecraft will be in an elliptical medium earth orbit, on which a special reflector will be installed that collects the laser beam and redirects it to a special chamber with hydrogen plasma.
Further, this plasma will be heated to a temperature of 40,000 degrees Celsius, and already gaseous hydrogen flowing around the core will reaching a temperature of 10,000 degrees Celsius, will be ejected through the nozzle at intervals of 58 minutes, thus creating the necessary traction.
In this way, it is planned to accelerate spacecraft to a speed of 17 km / s, which will ultimately allow reaching Mars in just 45 days.
How real is this technology at the moment
In principle, it is quite possible to create such powerful lasers and a laser-thermal engine. But the engineers are still puzzling over how to slow down such a ship.
One option is to decelerate in the atmosphere of Mars, but due to such a high initial speed, the ship will experience an overload of 8 g, and friction against the atmosphere will heat up the ship so that no existing material can cope thermal protection.
Another option is to decelerate the spacecraft with an equivalent laser system, which should be placed directly on Mars. But since there is no such installation and will not appear in the near future, we will not see spaceships with laser-thermal engines.
So when can spaceships with laser-thermal engines appear?
It turns out that the first people to Mars will go on spaceships with quite traditional chemical engines. And only after a permanent colony is created on the Red Planet, then the question of fast delivery of goods will become acute. As scientists suggest, the first ship with a laser-thermal installation will be able to go to Mars no earlier than 2040.
Well, the concept of a laser-thermal engine is quite interesting, but in 20 years everything may well change and scientists will discover a completely different principle of movement in space.
In the meantime, we will monitor the development of the project. Well, if you liked the material, then rate it and do not forget to subscribe to the channel. Thank you for your attention!