- cross-posted to:
- science@lemmy.world
- spaceflight@sh.itjust.works
- astronomy
- cross-posted to:
- science@lemmy.world
- spaceflight@sh.itjust.works
- astronomy
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/19354798
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/19354798
The solar sail reflects light instead of absorbing it so you get to double dip on photon momentum.
And sure, you can steer with the laser I suppose, but with that kind of super weak deltaV, you’re not going to be exactly doing donuts in the solar system.
Even the massive solar sail only imparts a super small amount of force. It’s only useful because it does so for free over a long period of time with no air resistance.
You’d be better off using a conventional thruster to do whatever steering you needed to do before letting the sail take over. It’s not like you need to steer around any obstacles.