Only ten years away, if we had a solar_

Tim Hutton - 2013-10-23 20:20:24+0000 - Updated: 2013-10-23 20:22:58+0000

Only ten years away, if we had a solar sail 16km in diameter.

(Source: some random person on the internet:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080512222748AAqaa16 )

Originally shared by Brian KoberleinWe've discovered a planet around Alpha Centauri.  It was found by measuring the motion of the star accurate to within half a meter per second.

Alpha Centauri has a Posse

Shared with: Public, Vilhelm Sjöberg

+1'd by: Ondřej Čertík, Alexander Clausen, Kevin C.

Vilhelm Sjöberg - 2013-10-23 23:57:45+0000

Solar sails don't really work away from the sun...

Tim Hutton - 2013-10-24 08:54:53+0000

+Vilhelm Sjöberg Yes. I think the idea is that they do all their acceleration at this end and decelerate the same way at the other end. But I haven't seen the maths to know if there's enough time to get enough acceleration.

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