Image 1) "Project Starshot, an initiative sponsored by the Breakthrough Foundation, is intended to be humanity’s first interstellar voyage. Credit: breakthroughinitiatives.org "(SciTechDaily/Lasers Could Send Missions to Mars in Just 45 Days)
The solar sails are effective systems for researching our solar system. The high-power laser system can send the swarm of probes outside the solar system and even to other solar systems. In that, the most extreme version of that project. There would be made a chain of ultra-powerful lasers in the solar system.
And then those lasers would give a punch for the solar sail when it travels through that point. The lasers can be fusion-powered systems that are basing Tokamak-reactor. The laser would install in the middle of the donut-shaped reactor. And then the radiation of that reactor would conduct to the laser element. There is the possibility to increase the power of the lasers by shooting electrons. Or some ions inside the laser rays. Those particles will increase the energy of the laser rays.
The solar sail that is sent to the journey would not be one craft. That system might be a swarm of miniaturized probes that are connected with the membrane. Those probes can be separated at the right distance. The thing is that this kind of system must be very large.
Image 2) "A swarm of laser-sail spacecraft leaving the Solar System. Credit: Adrian Mann" (ScitechDaily/Lasers Could Send Missions to Mars in Just 45 Days)
Because the energy load that those lasers are given is very high. In the missions to the outer side of the solar system or even to other solar systems the solar sail would use the outcoming energy as long as possible. The energy can transmit to that solar sail by using coherent radio waves. Or the system can use laser rays that are targeted to the large membrane. That is covered by using a thin silicon layer. That layer can use to create electricity for the solar sail.
That thing minimizes the energy load that hits the solar sail. So the solar sail would be a group of probes that are acting as an entirety. The solar sails are one of the versions of the interstellar and interplanetary probes. The thing is that there are many variants to this construction that benefits the solar wind for traveling in the solar system.
The solar sail could be a multipurpose tool. The sail is a very large structure. And there is the possibility to use that kind of thing as a spaceborne radio telescope. The large lightweight structure can be used also as a large-size radar. And the components that are installed in that thing can use also CCD cameras. The thing is that the same kind of structures that are suitable for the solar sails are also suitable for large-size orbital radars. The ultra-thin membrane acts as the radio telescope or radar. Can use as a communication antenna in the solar sails. But it can also use as a recon system that is orbiting Earth.
https://scitechdaily.com/lasers-could-send-missions-to-mars-in-just-45-days/
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