WEBVTT - Solar Sail Hobos Ride the Laser 0:00:03.800 --> 0:00:06.680 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.680 --> 0:00:14.200 Works dot Com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:14.320 --> 0:00:17.240 This is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Douglas. You know, Julie, 0:00:17.239 --> 0:00:20.000 I was thinking about hobo's earlier. Of course you are, 0:00:20.079 --> 0:00:23.000 and of course a great thing about hobos as we 0:00:23.239 --> 0:00:25.560 you know, think of the classic you know, a great 0:00:25.560 --> 0:00:29.880 Depression era wanderer with his bendel stick and his handkerchiefs 0:00:30.040 --> 0:00:33.559 handkerchief and his weird codes and uh, you know, it's 0:00:33.560 --> 0:00:35.320 like they would they would ride the rails. They would 0:00:35.320 --> 0:00:37.840 get from one from point A to point B by 0:00:37.920 --> 0:00:40.960 an accepted highway that existed between those, which was typically 0:00:41.000 --> 0:00:44.559 the rails, right. So um, and and you know, for 0:00:44.560 --> 0:00:47.319 the hobo, he's not really having to expend. He's kind 0:00:47.360 --> 0:00:50.159 of a a lazy individual, or at least he does. 0:00:50.479 --> 0:00:53.279 He has he has found value in other aspects of 0:00:53.320 --> 0:00:57.000 life that don't revolve around vigorous labor. So he will 0:00:57.080 --> 0:00:58.960 ride the rails and let the rails do all the 0:00:59.000 --> 0:01:01.840 work for him as he plays cards, yeah or whatever. 0:01:02.400 --> 0:01:04.679 So I was thinking, like, what if a hobo, a 0:01:04.760 --> 0:01:07.800 galactic hobo, as it were, needed to get from here 0:01:07.880 --> 0:01:12.200 to Proximu centuri, which is the the closest star to 0:01:12.240 --> 0:01:15.319 our own. Did you realize that we are equating astronauts 0:01:15.360 --> 0:01:18.399 with hoboes. Yes, and that's perfectly fine, Yes, yes, I 0:01:18.440 --> 0:01:20.880 just want to state that that's that's spot on right. 0:01:20.880 --> 0:01:22.320 I wish I had the internet here, I would do 0:01:22.319 --> 0:01:25.480 a certainty who was the first hobo astronaut? If we've 0:01:25.520 --> 0:01:29.559 had one, um or you know, and if we haven't, 0:01:29.600 --> 0:01:31.160 we need to see about fulfilling that if there are 0:01:31.080 --> 0:01:35.400 any hobos left. Right, So Proximus century, like I said, 0:01:35.440 --> 0:01:38.440 closest star to our own, which means it's an insane 0:01:38.520 --> 0:01:41.560 distance away. Um. To put that in a little in 0:01:41.600 --> 0:01:44.160 a little scale, it is two hundred and seventy one 0:01:44.480 --> 0:01:49.280 thousand astronomical units or a use away all right. Now, 0:01:49.400 --> 0:01:52.640 don't let that number throw anybody off. Two two hundred 0:01:52.680 --> 0:01:55.720 and seventy one tho a US. I'm there with you, okay, 0:01:56.000 --> 0:01:59.400 one a U a single astronomical unit is the distance 0:01:59.440 --> 0:02:03.760 between Earth and the Sun. Okay. So it's that distance 0:02:03.920 --> 0:02:08.079 laid out two hundred and seventy one thousand times, all right, 0:02:09.560 --> 0:02:11.679 So let's put all that in in even another friend 0:02:11.680 --> 0:02:14.320 of reforens here Okay, all right, this is a classic 0:02:14.320 --> 0:02:16.440 analogy and I got this off of off of a 0:02:16.520 --> 0:02:19.440 NASSA website. Uh, if the Sun were the size of 0:02:19.440 --> 0:02:23.400 a typical half inch diameter marble, Okay, the distance from 0:02:23.440 --> 0:02:27.000 the Sun to the Earth again an astronomical unit, would 0:02:27.040 --> 0:02:30.160 be about four ft. The Earth would barely would be 0:02:30.160 --> 0:02:32.320 barely thicker than a sheet of paper, and the orbit 0:02:32.320 --> 0:02:34.240 of the Moon would be about one fourth an inch 0:02:34.320 --> 0:02:37.519 in diameter. And on this scale, the closest to Star 0:02:37.639 --> 0:02:40.959 Proximus centuri would be about two d ten miles away. 0:02:41.240 --> 0:02:45.360 So that's about the distance between Cleveland and Cincinnati. Yeah, 0:02:45.440 --> 0:02:48.880 so we're we're talking a massive distance here, and there 0:02:48.919 --> 0:02:53.120 are no trains traversing that distance. So how would one 0:02:53.680 --> 0:02:57.880 get to that destination? Well, I mean you post a 0:02:57.880 --> 0:03:01.720 pretty lofty question there. I mean we're talking about uh 0:03:01.919 --> 0:03:05.760 trillion miles away, right, Okay, so it's definitely not gonna 0:03:05.760 --> 0:03:08.120 be a day trip, right, not a day trip. Okay, 0:03:08.320 --> 0:03:11.000 what's what's the farthest we've ever gone? Well, the voyage 0:03:11.120 --> 0:03:15.200 probe reach the farthest distance of man made object is gone. 0:03:15.280 --> 0:03:20.280 So we're talking a colossal journey pretty much. Um, for 0:03:20.360 --> 0:03:22.120 all intents and purpos, it's kind of an impossible one 0:03:22.160 --> 0:03:24.440 at this point. I mean, we could was we'll get 0:03:24.480 --> 0:03:25.920 into we could do it, but we have to have 0:03:25.919 --> 0:03:29.480 a phenomenal amount of will and energy. Yeah, and we'd 0:03:29.480 --> 0:03:31.519 have to maybe not be so into the idea of 0:03:31.560 --> 0:03:34.639 the hobo still being alive when you reach proximate centurion, 0:03:35.080 --> 0:03:38.680 right right, Um, So it comes down to energy, right right, 0:03:38.720 --> 0:03:40.840 And and it comes down to what's already making that trip. 0:03:41.280 --> 0:03:43.200 And I think as the as the title of the 0:03:43.640 --> 0:03:48.480 podcast should spoil, um light is the is the railway 0:03:48.320 --> 0:03:51.440 that one might traverse. That's right, Yeah, there's why a 0:03:51.520 --> 0:03:55.560 little photons. Yes, So the idea of using a solar 0:03:55.640 --> 0:03:58.360 sale and you know, it's it's a pretty basic concept, 0:03:58.640 --> 0:04:00.560 and it's it's exactly how you might think of it. 0:04:00.560 --> 0:04:01.720 You know, it's like you put up a sail on 0:04:01.760 --> 0:04:03.920 a ship and you catch the breeze and you ride 0:04:03.960 --> 0:04:07.280 the ride the wind across the lake. Say, well, the 0:04:07.320 --> 0:04:10.240 solar sail concept is pretty much the same thing. There's 0:04:10.280 --> 0:04:13.520 like a breeze of light, you put up the sail, 0:04:13.960 --> 0:04:16.600 the the it'll catch the breeze and push the object, 0:04:16.720 --> 0:04:18.880 push the sail. I mean, at first glance, it really 0:04:18.880 --> 0:04:21.040 does seem kind of whimsical. Yeah, it seems. Yeah, it 0:04:21.040 --> 0:04:23.000 sounds like it's a delightful you know, it sounds like 0:04:23.040 --> 0:04:25.680 something from some sort of like French animated film, you know, 0:04:25.720 --> 0:04:28.760 something on a fantastic planet. Indeed, you do see these 0:04:28.800 --> 0:04:32.000 these designs show up like unrealistically in things from time 0:04:32.040 --> 0:04:34.240 to time, like I think there's one in tron I 0:04:34.279 --> 0:04:37.920 think that second um Star Wars prequel has some sort 0:04:37.920 --> 0:04:41.360 of a solar sail thing, and uh so, so it's 0:04:41.360 --> 0:04:43.160 easy to sort of dismiss it is just as being 0:04:43.200 --> 0:04:45.479 like sailing ships and outer space is kind of a deal. 0:04:46.320 --> 0:04:49.640 But but the idea has been around for a while. Um. 0:04:50.040 --> 0:04:53.200 The astronomer Johannes Kepler, who we recently talked about in 0:04:53.200 --> 0:04:57.839 another podcast Um he actually can't is perhaps the earliest 0:04:57.880 --> 0:05:00.760 to come up with the concept back in the sixteen century, 0:05:01.040 --> 0:05:04.000 and he noticed that comet tails always point away from 0:05:04.040 --> 0:05:08.960 the sun, implying the sunlight itself is pushing them around 0:05:09.040 --> 0:05:13.159 like cosmic wind socks, right right, So he thought that 0:05:13.200 --> 0:05:16.120 you could just simply, you know, get like a ship 0:05:16.200 --> 0:05:18.440 with the sail, and you know, it was properly put together, 0:05:18.480 --> 0:05:21.680 you could sail around out there, which which again, that's 0:05:21.720 --> 0:05:23.400 kind of that sounds kind of fantastic. It was really 0:05:23.440 --> 0:05:25.960 on the right track. So his hunch was right. Yeah, 0:05:26.000 --> 0:05:27.400 I do have to point out that they as he 0:05:27.440 --> 0:05:30.320 also thought that comments were formed of fatty globules and ether, 0:05:30.920 --> 0:05:34.080 which for two, you can't get everything right. Okay, you're 0:05:34.080 --> 0:05:37.440 really asking a lot of limitations back man too. Um, 0:05:37.480 --> 0:05:40.240 but but but just start to run down exactly how 0:05:40.240 --> 0:05:43.520 this is working. All right, Scientists now know, um, with 0:05:43.600 --> 0:05:45.240 the you know, the advent of all the things we've 0:05:45.279 --> 0:05:48.160 learned since the sixteenth century, that sunlight is a little 0:05:48.160 --> 0:05:51.040 more than a stream of photons, tiny particles of light, 0:05:51.360 --> 0:05:55.040 and they don't possess mass, but they do boast linear momentum, right, 0:05:55.080 --> 0:05:58.320 and then the smallest quantum of light, right, And when 0:05:58.320 --> 0:06:00.920 they bounce off of a reflective sour face, they push 0:06:01.000 --> 0:06:04.080 against that surface. There's actually a push. So just you know, 0:06:04.960 --> 0:06:06.800 you know, just look at anything like I'm looking right 0:06:06.800 --> 0:06:10.880 now at a at a lamp and a canister of 0:06:11.279 --> 0:06:14.480 tissue paper, you know, and and it granted that the 0:06:14.480 --> 0:06:17.360 tissue paper is not crawling across the desk pushed by 0:06:17.360 --> 0:06:19.679 the light, but there, but even though it's not visible 0:06:19.680 --> 0:06:22.440 of the naked eye, there is um. There is a 0:06:22.480 --> 0:06:25.480 certain amount of momentum to that light. Yeah, and if 0:06:25.520 --> 0:06:28.560 that tissue were a tissue box, I should say we're 0:06:28.600 --> 0:06:31.160 super light and it was reflective, and when we'd see 0:06:31.200 --> 0:06:32.760 more momentum right right, and if it were an outer 0:06:33.400 --> 0:06:36.320 and uh, you know, free of the confines of Earth's gravity, 0:06:36.360 --> 0:06:37.960 then we start, you know, opening up the rules a 0:06:38.000 --> 0:06:43.920 little bit. So um. After Kepler had was long dead, 0:06:44.320 --> 0:06:47.800 eight seventy three had James Clark Maxwell, and he first 0:06:47.800 --> 0:06:50.440 demonstrated that sunlight exerts that a small amount of pressure 0:06:50.520 --> 0:06:53.720 on photons. In nineteen sixty, we launched a little something 0:06:53.760 --> 0:06:58.560 called Echo one, uh and observed the sun pushing it around. 0:06:58.560 --> 0:07:02.080 Echo one and Leaveacko too. We're both pretty awesome because 0:07:02.080 --> 0:07:05.039 they were basically super balloons. They were they rose up 0:07:05.080 --> 0:07:08.800 to an altitude of a of a thousand miles and uh, 0:07:08.839 --> 0:07:11.320 you know, we're actually space balloons in a very real 0:07:11.440 --> 0:07:13.200 sense of the word. And they look kind of like 0:07:13.320 --> 0:07:17.960 giant giant they're huge spheres. They kind of like giant 0:07:18.040 --> 0:07:21.360 Christmas tree ornaments, just a very thin, you know, layer, 0:07:21.920 --> 0:07:25.560 reflective surface with the gas. Yeah, I can't help but 0:07:25.600 --> 0:07:28.680 think up hot air balloons without the bucket. Yeah, So 0:07:28.920 --> 0:07:31.440 so in this case they observed the sun actually pushing 0:07:31.480 --> 0:07:34.280 on it. So the basics behind that then is that 0:07:34.320 --> 0:07:38.600 you've got a reflective surface. You've got light, right, and 0:07:38.720 --> 0:07:41.400 like you said, you're you're we're not just reflected highly 0:07:41.440 --> 0:07:45.280 reflect like a sheet of metal or a plastic coated 0:07:45.280 --> 0:07:48.600 with metal and uh, and then it's reflecting the light. Okay. 0:07:48.800 --> 0:07:51.400 And so the sales that we have right now, they're 0:07:51.400 --> 0:07:53.400 thin sheets of metal like you said, and they've got 0:07:53.400 --> 0:07:57.320 the plastic substrate in between, and then the reflective film 0:07:57.360 --> 0:08:00.760 faces the sun. Right, Is that right? And it seems 0:08:00.760 --> 0:08:03.200 again it seems really whimsical to think that this might 0:08:03.240 --> 0:08:07.760 be something that could empower us to alpha century. Yeah, 0:08:08.920 --> 0:08:12.360 it sounds far fetched, but but actually the more you 0:08:12.400 --> 0:08:15.200 look at it, the more realistic it is. We've actually 0:08:15.320 --> 0:08:18.720 um I was taught, actually talked about this subject with 0:08:18.760 --> 0:08:22.440 the Dr Gregory L. Matt Loff, who is you can 0:08:22.480 --> 0:08:25.400 look him up online. He's a pretty brilliant dude and 0:08:25.800 --> 0:08:28.560 just can talk about sales, solar sales at the drop 0:08:28.600 --> 0:08:30.760 of a hat. Just tell you all about him. So 0:08:31.000 --> 0:08:32.920 the things that I get right in this podcast to 0:08:32.960 --> 0:08:35.560 attribute to him, and the any errors I make are 0:08:35.760 --> 0:08:39.959 purely my own doing. Um. But Marion or ten is 0:08:40.000 --> 0:08:42.199 an example of a probe that we sent out that 0:08:42.200 --> 0:08:45.120 it was not in its in and of itself a 0:08:45.200 --> 0:08:49.360 solar sale, but it had solar cells on it. It 0:08:49.440 --> 0:08:52.120 had it was gaining some energy from the Sun because 0:08:52.120 --> 0:08:55.800 it was on a on a mission around Mercury right 0:08:55.800 --> 0:08:58.760 where there's lots of solar energy due the proximity of 0:08:58.840 --> 0:09:02.560 Mercury to the Sun. So they were running low on 0:09:02.600 --> 0:09:05.960 the on gas to power it's you know, corrective boosters. 0:09:06.240 --> 0:09:09.840 So they were able to use it's a solar cells 0:09:10.000 --> 0:09:13.599 as a as an impromptu solar sale to maneuver it 0:09:13.640 --> 0:09:16.640 a little, and they had some success with that. And 0:09:16.720 --> 0:09:18.360 uh and so since that point we've had a number 0:09:18.400 --> 0:09:21.960 of other experiments. The US especially had a habit of 0:09:22.000 --> 0:09:23.839 like putting a lot of work and thought into them 0:09:23.840 --> 0:09:27.559 and then not doing anything with it right, usually because 0:09:27.600 --> 0:09:30.840 the funding dried up. Yeah, exactly, Like in the seventies. 0:09:30.920 --> 0:09:34.920 Dr Lewis Friedman wanted to send a pro about to 0:09:34.960 --> 0:09:36.760 Hayley's comment, and they were going to use the solar 0:09:36.760 --> 0:09:39.840 sales for the rendezvous, but that was scrapped. The Russian 0:09:39.840 --> 0:09:45.240 Space Agency had the whole uh spinning space mirror program, Uh, 0:09:45.360 --> 0:09:49.520 the zan Maya one and two and UH and possibly three. 0:09:49.679 --> 0:09:52.119 I'm not sure if three actually came to fruition. But 0:09:52.120 --> 0:09:53.520 but the whole idea was they were going to reflect 0:09:53.559 --> 0:09:56.400 sunlight uh back to the Earth so that they could 0:09:56.600 --> 0:09:58.559 give sunlight to some of the you know, the far 0:09:58.720 --> 0:10:01.400 northern regions that we're pretty short on it during the 0:10:01.679 --> 0:10:05.040 winter and uh. And in at any rate, that was 0:10:05.080 --> 0:10:07.800 able to successfully demonstrate some of those uh, those properties 0:10:07.800 --> 0:10:09.880 of the solar sale even though those those projects were 0:10:09.880 --> 0:10:13.800 far from you know, tremendously successful and um but though 0:10:14.200 --> 0:10:16.679 just as a side note, they were apparently designed to 0:10:16.720 --> 0:10:19.400 the point where they could provide luminosity between five and 0:10:19.440 --> 0:10:23.880 ten times a full moon. So well, you know, um 0:10:24.040 --> 0:10:28.280 uh India's INSAT two A and three A communications satellites 0:10:28.840 --> 0:10:33.600 in two thousand three. Uh, they were there was like 0:10:33.640 --> 0:10:35.800 a four panel solar array on one side, and they 0:10:35.960 --> 0:10:39.160 were able to use some aspects of solar sale technology 0:10:39.160 --> 0:10:43.120 to maneuver it. And of course then the Japanese finally 0:10:43.160 --> 0:10:45.320 beat us to the punch by getting you know, it's 0:10:45.360 --> 0:10:47.240 like we're just as the years get up, right, we 0:10:47.520 --> 0:10:49.839 sort of see this as a trend that. Yeah, they 0:10:49.840 --> 0:10:51.280 were left a little bit in the the dusts they were 0:10:51.320 --> 0:10:54.960 able to launch this wonderful little device called Karros and 0:10:55.120 --> 0:10:59.280 uh it's I I say little, but it had. It's 0:10:59.440 --> 0:11:02.959 basically a square some twenty meters in a diagonal line, 0:11:03.520 --> 0:11:06.160 and it's as thin as like point zero zero seventy 0:11:06.160 --> 0:11:10.160 five millimeters and it's made from a poly need resident. Right, 0:11:10.160 --> 0:11:11.880 it's called the space yacht. Right, just to give you 0:11:11.880 --> 0:11:13.920 an idea of how big it is. Yeah, and uh yeah, 0:11:13.960 --> 0:11:16.360 the headlines really loved using that space shot, thank too. 0:11:16.440 --> 0:11:19.280 But it's pretty cool because it would it would it 0:11:19.360 --> 0:11:20.880 was like it would be it was like this the 0:11:20.920 --> 0:11:23.760 central hub that would rotate and then the sales would 0:11:23.960 --> 0:11:27.800 would would spread out on all sides around it, and 0:11:27.840 --> 0:11:30.480 it was it was. They used a rocket to get 0:11:30.520 --> 0:11:33.880 it up there right right, okay, and then it unfurled okay, 0:11:34.840 --> 0:11:37.679 and uh yeah, and it's it's it's been pretty successful 0:11:37.720 --> 0:11:40.560 so far, um there, and we're still keeping eyes on 0:11:40.600 --> 0:11:42.400 it to see how it's gonna how it's gonna do 0:11:42.440 --> 0:11:46.079 in the near future. But the spacecraft itself was launched 0:11:46.559 --> 0:11:50.280 May two, ten, uh, and with the whole idea that's 0:11:50.280 --> 0:11:52.480 going to spend a six month trip traveling to Venus 0:11:52.480 --> 0:11:54.400 and then it was gonna been a three year journey 0:11:54.440 --> 0:11:58.439 to the far side of the Sun. So it's the 0:11:58.480 --> 0:12:02.400 world's first solar powered aircraft employing both the photon propulsion 0:12:02.520 --> 0:12:05.760 and then film solar power generation. So it's it's it's 0:12:05.760 --> 0:12:08.360 getting some energy from the sun for it's uh for 0:12:08.400 --> 0:12:10.760 it's uh, it's for some sun for some of its thrust. 0:12:10.760 --> 0:12:12.840 But then it's also using solar sales, okay, and they're 0:12:12.840 --> 0:12:15.800 able to manipulate that yeah, yeah, yeah. But the really 0:12:15.800 --> 0:12:17.800 cool thing is, you know, no fuel, it's all based 0:12:17.840 --> 0:12:19.880 on on the Sun, some of its solar sales, some 0:12:19.960 --> 0:12:23.000 of its solar cells, uh, to to power these these 0:12:23.040 --> 0:12:26.680 little thrusters. And uh. Then there's of course NASA's Nano 0:12:26.760 --> 0:12:31.760 Sale D which is currently as of this recording, NASA 0:12:31.840 --> 0:12:34.600 has lost contact with it. Um. It was you know, 0:12:34.640 --> 0:12:37.680 recently launched just in the past month, and it is 0:12:37.840 --> 0:12:40.360 it's what's called a nano satellite or a cube SAT, 0:12:40.400 --> 0:12:43.520 and it's merely designed. It's it's one of several different 0:12:43.520 --> 0:12:45.720 experiments where launched and it's up there just to test 0:12:45.720 --> 0:12:49.839 the potential for solar sales in atmospheric breaking. And that's 0:12:49.880 --> 0:12:52.480 when you have an interplanetary vehicle and you send it, 0:12:52.520 --> 0:12:54.400 say to Mars, and you want it to slow down 0:12:54.440 --> 0:12:56.360 when it gets to Mars. Right. It was also ejected 0:12:56.400 --> 0:12:58.400 from another satellite, right, which is kind of a cool 0:12:58.400 --> 0:13:00.880 way to get multiple satellites up there or betting at 0:13:00.880 --> 0:13:02.720 the same Timeeah, it's like, let's get a satellite up 0:13:02.720 --> 0:13:06.160 there loaded with some nano satellites, each one like testing 0:13:06.280 --> 0:13:10.240 some particular technology. So in this case, this one tested 0:13:10.720 --> 0:13:14.760 tested solar sales. But you know, so keep your fingers 0:13:14.760 --> 0:13:16.880 crossed right now, it's not looking too hot for it. 0:13:16.960 --> 0:13:18.960 But you know, I don't know, maybe it's just part 0:13:19.000 --> 0:13:22.360 of the curse with with US solar sale technology, the 0:13:22.440 --> 0:13:27.200 curse nano sale d Okay, So it's worth wondering just 0:13:27.240 --> 0:13:29.520 how fast are these things going? Because again I'm looking 0:13:29.559 --> 0:13:32.880 at the cleanex box. It's not moving, so it's you know, 0:13:33.200 --> 0:13:35.880 just looking at that. Uh, It's it's hard. It's not 0:13:36.120 --> 0:13:38.440 it's not moving to me, but it's hard to look 0:13:38.480 --> 0:13:41.120 at that and then imagine oh the sun pushing uh, 0:13:41.120 --> 0:13:43.440 you know, these satellites or even a spaceship with a 0:13:43.480 --> 0:13:46.000 hobo inside it, Like, you know, how is that gonna 0:13:46.080 --> 0:13:48.640 reach any amount of speed, but you'd actually be surprised, 0:13:48.840 --> 0:13:51.160 all right, um, if you if you were to reduce 0:13:51.240 --> 0:13:54.760 them the mass of of one of these devices significantly, 0:13:54.800 --> 0:13:57.400 you could see it eventually traveling at about like fifty 0:13:57.440 --> 0:14:01.160 six miles per second, which it's just crazy. Yeah, Like 0:14:01.200 --> 0:14:04.959 that's basically like two hundred thousand miles per hour UM. 0:14:05.080 --> 0:14:07.800 That's ten times faster than the Space Shuttle's orbital speed 0:14:07.800 --> 0:14:10.839 of five five miles per second. And uh and it 0:14:10.880 --> 0:14:13.120 would be like traveling from New York to Los Angeles 0:14:13.160 --> 0:14:16.240 in less than a minute UM. If NASA order to 0:14:16.320 --> 0:14:19.840 launch an interstellar probe powered by solar sales, it would 0:14:19.840 --> 0:14:22.960 take only eight years for it to catch Voyager one spacecraft, 0:14:23.480 --> 0:14:25.680 which is which has been traveling for twenty years and 0:14:25.760 --> 0:14:28.320 is the most distant spacecraft from Earth, like we mentioned earlier. 0:14:28.800 --> 0:14:32.240 So the speed can really pick up UM and and 0:14:32.280 --> 0:14:35.120 the key with it with any kind of interstellar voyage 0:14:35.160 --> 0:14:38.080 because again, as you want to start as close to 0:14:38.120 --> 0:14:40.560 the Sun as possible, it's kind of like imagine that 0:14:40.600 --> 0:14:43.000 you have a fan in a room, like an electric 0:14:43.040 --> 0:14:45.800 fan and a paper airplane, and you want to use 0:14:45.880 --> 0:14:49.440 the power of that fan to sail that paper airplane 0:14:49.440 --> 0:14:51.920 across this big room. You want to start it as 0:14:51.960 --> 0:14:53.880 close to that fan as possible to give them the 0:14:53.880 --> 0:14:56.000 biggest to meet push, Yeah, to give them as momentum. 0:14:56.440 --> 0:14:59.840 And so is the idea too that the greater the distance, 0:15:00.040 --> 0:15:03.520 the greater the velocity, it's gonna go a lot faster. Yeah. 0:15:03.600 --> 0:15:05.760 And and and you want to have as lighter materials 0:15:05.760 --> 0:15:08.840 as possible, you know, as reflective as possible. So um, 0:15:09.040 --> 0:15:11.000 you know, it's talking to Matt Loft and he said, yeah, 0:15:11.000 --> 0:15:13.280 if you had using you know, sort of current technology, 0:15:13.680 --> 0:15:16.880 you would you get this thing close to the sun 0:15:16.960 --> 0:15:20.320 as possible, probably within the orbit of mercury, and uh, 0:15:20.560 --> 0:15:23.160 get it in position, and then you unfurl those sales, 0:15:23.320 --> 0:15:26.360 right it starts and then all that reflection starts taking place, 0:15:27.400 --> 0:15:30.560 and uh you could you could probably reach two hundred 0:15:30.600 --> 0:15:34.880 astronomical units in something like fifteen years, ten or fifteen years. 0:15:35.600 --> 0:15:38.480 That that kind of uh, that kind of field. So 0:15:38.600 --> 0:15:40.720 if you were putting a hobo on that, I don't 0:15:40.760 --> 0:15:43.120 know how forget about how much a hobo ways, let's 0:15:43.120 --> 0:15:45.240 just you know, for just to just just jazz it up, 0:15:45.240 --> 0:15:47.120 we'll say hobo is aboard. Even if it's like a 0:15:47.200 --> 0:15:50.680 nano hobo. Yeah, and uh you're going to launch in 0:15:50.680 --> 0:15:52.640 the future, y. Yeah, that's it's coming. They're gonna be 0:15:52.640 --> 0:15:55.440 made out of nanotubes. Um, you were going to launch 0:15:55.520 --> 0:15:59.680 him from mercury uh towards proximate centuri Uh, you would 0:15:59.680 --> 0:16:01.840 probably we'd probably take seven thousand years for him to 0:16:01.920 --> 0:16:06.800 reach it. Yeah. So so again that sounds really really slow. 0:16:07.000 --> 0:16:10.160 It is a colossal distance. I mean at that point 0:16:10.200 --> 0:16:12.600 you need a generationship, right so that the hobo could 0:16:12.600 --> 0:16:16.560 make other little hoboes that or your hobo has to 0:16:16.600 --> 0:16:19.200 be purely mechanical or even a program like. One of 0:16:19.240 --> 0:16:22.040 the really cool things about nanotechnology is when you start 0:16:22.080 --> 0:16:25.000 looking at the possibilities of deep space probes, they don't 0:16:25.040 --> 0:16:27.480 have to be as big as a room, right is 0:16:27.480 --> 0:16:30.240 the technology improves, we can seevably make smaller and smaller 0:16:30.760 --> 0:16:33.440 uh probes capable of of you know, of going out 0:16:33.480 --> 0:16:36.400 there and relaying a message or or even you know, 0:16:36.800 --> 0:16:40.600 carrying a sensory equipment. Right again, how carbon nanotubes are 0:16:40.680 --> 0:16:43.760 changing our life exactly? And in fact, that was one 0:16:43.800 --> 0:16:45.680 thing Matt Low touched touched on too. It's like it's 0:16:45.960 --> 0:16:48.520 with this improves and we're able to make say a 0:16:48.720 --> 0:16:52.360 fifty nanometer uh, you know, thick sale if you built 0:16:52.400 --> 0:16:54.640 it in space, you know, and you could probably make 0:16:54.680 --> 0:16:57.200 an interstellar void and as little as two thousand years 0:16:57.920 --> 0:17:00.240 and go uh in in so the lie or you 0:17:00.360 --> 0:17:03.080 go uh and you could go even faster. One one 0:17:03.120 --> 0:17:04.879 possibility to would beat it. You have that you have 0:17:05.000 --> 0:17:07.640 like holes in your sale if it perforated, because you're 0:17:07.640 --> 0:17:11.320 still you know, cover a huge space, still reflective, but 0:17:12.000 --> 0:17:14.280 taking up less mass. So it's just a game of 0:17:14.359 --> 0:17:16.359 like cutting down how much space they take? How how 0:17:16.480 --> 0:17:19.200 small can you get in order as you can Yeah, 0:17:19.280 --> 0:17:21.840 and just you know huge sales as well, right, well, yes, 0:17:21.960 --> 0:17:24.840 I guess smaller meaning point Yeah. And so Matt, I've 0:17:24.840 --> 0:17:27.439 also said that, you know, as we get into these 0:17:27.480 --> 0:17:31.480 carbon nanotubes and and and graphines and and all these 0:17:31.680 --> 0:17:35.359 type of futuristic um materials, he thinks we'll do a 0:17:35.400 --> 0:17:38.000 lot better than than two thousand years. He you know, 0:17:38.119 --> 0:17:40.320 he thinks we may even get you know, below a 0:17:40.400 --> 0:17:44.359 thousand years. Uh. And he says he has his doubts 0:17:44.400 --> 0:17:46.240 when we get into talking about like a couple of 0:17:46.320 --> 0:17:50.399 hundred years. So it would still take our current technology. No, No, 0:17:50.520 --> 0:17:54.680 this would be with with with forthcoming nanotechnology, we would 0:17:54.800 --> 0:17:57.280 he and this is just talking about you know, getting 0:17:57.280 --> 0:18:00.160 into the orbit of mercury and sling shotting at out 0:18:00.200 --> 0:18:02.800 on that beam of light. I mean, but we're using 0:18:03.000 --> 0:18:07.080 some current technology to sort of Yeah, current technology, you're 0:18:07.080 --> 0:18:10.639 looking at a seven thousand trip, but with conceivable more 0:18:10.720 --> 0:18:13.480 or less near future technology, you could get it down 0:18:13.560 --> 0:18:16.840 to a thousand years maybe a number of central Okay, 0:18:16.880 --> 0:18:18.280 So some of the technology we have right now, it's 0:18:18.280 --> 0:18:20.240 just a matter of decreasing in the size that we 0:18:20.280 --> 0:18:22.399 needed to be. Yeah. Okay, so let's go back to 0:18:22.560 --> 0:18:24.640 the get that right in my head. Yeah, So let's 0:18:24.640 --> 0:18:27.680 get back to that that paper airplane in the room 0:18:27.760 --> 0:18:30.199 with the electric fan. Let's say you're shooting it off 0:18:30.600 --> 0:18:33.119 and it's not making it all the way. What's one 0:18:33.160 --> 0:18:36.080 thing you can do to increase the chances of delivering 0:18:36.320 --> 0:18:38.240 that paper airplane to the far side of the room. 0:18:39.520 --> 0:18:45.560 I can harness it with nuclear arm heads no, no, no, no. 0:18:45.880 --> 0:18:47.639 But but what you can do is say you've got 0:18:47.680 --> 0:18:52.040 a different fan, a more powerful fan. Right. So we 0:18:52.160 --> 0:18:56.119 can't really replace the sun right right, Um, I mean 0:18:56.200 --> 0:18:58.720 not with any kind of conceivable technology. If we could 0:18:58.720 --> 0:19:00.720 reach the point where we could replace the sun. We 0:19:00.760 --> 0:19:02.440 wouldn't be trying to figure out how to travel to 0:19:02.480 --> 0:19:04.679 the far side of the galaxy because you're probably doing 0:19:04.720 --> 0:19:07.000 it every day. So but one thing we can do 0:19:07.160 --> 0:19:11.320 is we can concentrate those particles by use of a 0:19:11.400 --> 0:19:14.920 laser or a particle accelerator, because these are basically just 0:19:15.040 --> 0:19:18.760 concentrated um photons, right, Okay, so we know the photons 0:19:18.800 --> 0:19:21.679 have momentum. So if we did have giant lasers, then 0:19:22.040 --> 0:19:25.639 you would have so much more energy to concentrate that. 0:19:25.720 --> 0:19:28.359 What you're saying, you could have a solar pumped laser, 0:19:28.600 --> 0:19:31.240 which is basically a laser that's feeding off solar energy 0:19:31.320 --> 0:19:35.680 that's absorbed. Okay, So the idea here is you would 0:19:35.720 --> 0:19:37.760 point you if you've got one of these just crazy 0:19:37.800 --> 0:19:39.920 advanced lasers, you could point it in the direction that 0:19:39.960 --> 0:19:42.879 you want to solar sail you know, kind of like 0:19:43.080 --> 0:19:46.320 laying a train track, uh, point in the direction of 0:19:46.359 --> 0:19:49.720 say proximate centuri and then you just you know, you 0:19:49.880 --> 0:19:54.320 coast that solar sail craft into the stream and then whammo, 0:19:54.440 --> 0:19:57.480 it just takes off. It's like like grabbing hold of 0:19:57.800 --> 0:19:59.440 you know, being on a skateboard and grabbing hold of 0:19:59.480 --> 0:20:02.760 a passing vehicle. Suddenly you're you're office. Do you have 0:20:02.800 --> 0:20:05.760 a couple of things at work. You've got the added 0:20:05.760 --> 0:20:08.680 acceleration of the beam, right, and then you've get the 0:20:08.760 --> 0:20:11.880 fact that the greater the distance to travel, the faster 0:20:12.000 --> 0:20:15.080 you're going. So two of those those forces working on it. Yeah, 0:20:15.160 --> 0:20:18.800 provided you built a large enough laser, a large enough sail, 0:20:18.920 --> 0:20:21.320 and a light enough spacecraft and you know, had light 0:20:21.480 --> 0:20:25.480 enough Hobo in it, um, you could conceivably, according to 0:20:25.560 --> 0:20:29.320 Mount laft Uh, according to his estimations, um, with this 0:20:29.440 --> 0:20:33.919 higher velocity, you could conceivably deliver that ship to another 0:20:34.000 --> 0:20:36.880 to the nearest start to proximate injury within a human lifetime. 0:20:37.560 --> 0:20:39.399 Well okay, so that's how we get to see it 0:20:39.600 --> 0:20:42.720