this post was submitted on 12 Dec 2023
21 points (100.0% liked)

AskPhysics

453 readers
1 users here now

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Edit: I assume we’d at least have to take intended acceleration and the mass of the spacecraft into account, at least, right?

top 3 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Sometimes it is best to go to source papers as lemmy/kbin does not handle complex formula well.

Here is a link to a relevant paper:

Theory of light sail acceleration by intense lasers

Another paper on the effectiveness of various materials in solar sail production:

Multilayers for directed energy accelerated lightsails

[–] JoshuaSlowpoke777 1 points 11 months ago

So let’s say the spacecraft itself is about 1 billion metric tonnes, the sail is made of 7 layers containing titanium oxide and magnesium difluoride, the beam can keep itself consistent, and the intended acceleration is 1g…

[–] badcommandorfilename 1 points 11 months ago

I assume pressure is pressure is pressure even in space? We measure tensile strength in MPa.