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Beaming into Space

Posted by michael on from the do-not-look-into-beam-with-remaining-eye dept.

HobbySpacer writes "At this week's 1st Int. Symposium on Beamed Energy Propulsion in Huntsville a wide range of laser and microwave propulsion schemes are being presented. The big news so far is the announcement by Gregory Benford of plans for a test of microwave propulsion with the Cosmos Sail, due to fly early next year. The possibilities of using lasers to deflect incoming asteroids & comets are also under discussion."

2 of 124 comments (clear)

  1. Re:A simple proposal by TheOnlyCoolTim · · Score: 5, Interesting

    What we really need to do is convince some multi-billionare (like Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, or one of those Middle East Oil Sheiks) to jumpstart humanity's expansion into space out of their own pockets.

    Start with a space elevator, price tag 10 - 40 Billion dollars. Then maybe build a *NICE* space station on top of it, which should cost much less. Use the space station to build a spaceship for the purpose of bringing an insanely mineral rich asteroid back to Earth orbit. Establish a mining base on the asteroid.

    3. Profit.

    Tim

    --
    Omnia vestra castrorum habetur nobis.
  2. Re:Why deflect Asteroids? by Spy+Hunter · · Score: 4, Interesting

    No, we should send out little tiny spaceships that shoot dots. Then we can shoot them into smaller asteroids that split into even smaller asteroids, and then those just disappear when you shoot them. I have lots of practice with this already.

    --
    main(c,r){for(r=32;r;) printf(++c>31?c=!r--,"\n":c<r?" ":~c&r?" `":" #");}