newatlas.com

will_a113, 7 miesięcy temu do astronomy w Advanced solar sail mission prepares to catch the wind in the void of space

The interesting part of the article:

The new flexible polymer and carbon composite boom is coupled with a twelve-unit (12U) CubeSat built by NanoAvionics. After the mission launches atop a Rocket Lab Electron rocket from the company’s Launch Complex 1 in Māhia, New Zealand, the spacecraft will go into a Sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of about 600 miles (~1,000 km) and the sail will deploy in about 25 minutes to cover an area of 860 ft² (80 m²) with the boom unfolding from the size of a hand to 23 ft (7 m) long. Once deployed, the sail will adjust the vehicle’s orbit by angling itself in relation to the solar wind.

Atelopus-zeteki, 7 miesięcy temu

Yar! Sailing the Solar Winds! TBH, been waiting for this since I first heard of solar sails. Yay, ingenious tool using primates!!!

NOT_RICK, 7 miesięcy temu do scifi w China is building a railgun that can hurl crewed spacecraft into orbit

And not get crushed by the G forces how exactly?

thr0w4w4y2, 7 miesięcy temu do scifi w China is building a railgun that can hurl crewed spacecraft into orbit

humans can still function when insane G forces have turned them into jelly right?

atocci, 7 miesięcy temu (edited 7 miesięcy temu)

While railguns are known for rapidly accelerating projectiles to hypersonic speeds over the short length of a gun barrel, there's no limit on how slowly they can accelerate something or how long the "rail" part of the railgun can be. Accelerating "slowly" over a long distance is totally possible!

Repelle, 7 miesięcy temu

Sure, but it’s gonna require one hell of a long rail…

MyTurtleSwimsUpsideDown, 7 miesięcy temu

Make it a circular rail with an off-ramp; like a particle accelerator. Still very ambitious.

sushibowl, 7 miesięcy temu

That would put the g-forces back in play: the faster you go around the rail the stronger the centripetal force that keeps you going in a circle. If the rail is straight the force only depends on acceleration not speed.

smuuthbrane, 7 miesięcy temu do scifi w China is building a railgun that can hurl crewed spacecraft into orbit

I hereby dub any crew member sent to space in this manner a Cannonaut.

Tar_alcaran, 7 miesięcy temu do scifi w China is building a railgun that can hurl crewed spacecraft into orbit

If you want to reach LEO velocity and stay under 5g, you’d need a 860km long railgun…

This was posted in the correct community, because it’s about as real as the hyperloop

Bizarroland, 7 miesięcy temu do scifi w China is building a railgun that can hurl crewed spacecraft into orbit

你们中有些人可能会死，但这是我愿意冒的风险

Bizarroland, 7 miesięcy temu

Just to save you guys a click, this is a Google translate of, "some of you may die but that is a risk I'm willing to take"

TropicalDingdong, 7 miesięcy temu do scifi w China is building a railgun that can hurl crewed spacecraft into orbit

yeet

lettruthout, 7 miesięcy temu

Maybe even megayeet.

But I sure hope they can pull this off.

MushuChupacabra, 7 miesięcy temu do scifi w China is building a railgun that can hurl crewed spacecraft into orbit

That initial acceleration is gonna be a bit shitty.