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http://www.space.com/businesstechnology … 50211.html
havn't seen anybody posting this one.
As for the technology; i wonder how much payload a hundred meter sail could send to mars, or how big a sail do we need to make say marsdirect work?
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I personally think that the idea is dumb, and is really a ploy to draw in money for the time-honored tradition of paying aerospace engineers to develop but never produce anything practical for spaceflight.
The biggest giveaway is the steriotypical "Mars in a month!" line, which is bascially used whenever somebody comes up with a new propulsion idea and needs publicity to get money for said pet project. Notice how it doesn't say how much payload it could push for a given microwave beam, and convienantly forgets to mention that it would only work well one way most likly.
We already know how to get to Mars in a reasonably short time scale, and we just need to stop dithering with pipe-dream ideas and do it. Spend the money on designing a new Tricarbide NTR engine instead.
[i]"The power of accurate observation is often called cynicism by those that do not have it." - George Bernard Shaw[/i]
[i]The glass is at 50% of capacity[/i]
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