- Delhi Meerut RRTS Inauguration: India’s New King of Speed, Discover Special Features of Rapid X Times Of India
- Watch: PM Modi Inaugurates Priority Section Of India’s 1st Regional Rapid Train Service ‘Namo Bharat’ KTBS
- “Example of our two nations’ cooperation…” German Envoy on Deutsche Bahn-operated RapidX train Times of India
- India’s 1st Regional Rail Service RapidX Renamed NaMo Bharat NDTV
- Delhi-Meerut RRTS: Namo Bharat is a glimpse of future India, says PM Modi; urges public to take care of new trains Times of India
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Tag Archives: speed
‘I live in the real world’: Kevin O’Leary just warned the US has a ‘crisis emerging’ thanks to the breakneck speed of rate hikes — here’s who will feel the most pain – Yahoo Finance
- ‘I live in the real world’: Kevin O’Leary just warned the US has a ‘crisis emerging’ thanks to the breakneck speed of rate hikes — here’s who will feel the most pain Yahoo Finance
- ‘Things are going to break’: Kevin O’Leary predicts Fed hikes will lead to more U.S. regional bank failures CNBC
- Kevin O’Leary cautions against optimism about the U.S. economy CNBC International TV
- Kevin O’Leary’s warning rings true as credit crunch crushes small firms Markets Insider
- Kevin O’Leary’s warning rings true as a worsening credit crunch crushes America’s small businesses Business Insider India
Debt limit bill would speed completion of controversial West Virginia gas pipeline – CNBC
- Debt limit bill would speed completion of controversial West Virginia gas pipeline CNBC
- Keith Olbermann calls for Biden to ‘kick Joe Manchin’s a–‘ over gas pipeline approval in debt ceiling deal Fox News
- W.Va. congressional reps praise Mountain Valley Pipeline’s inclusion in debt ceiling deal West Virginia MetroNews
- Mountain Valley Pipeline: Debt limit deal would expedite permit of controversial West Virginia gas pipeline CBS News
- ‘An egregious act’: debt ceiling deal imperils the environment, critics say The Guardian
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LA leaders to consider speed bump program for elementary schools after mother killed, child injured in Mid-Wilshire area – KABC-TV
- LA leaders to consider speed bump program for elementary schools after mother killed, child injured in Mid-Wilshire area KABC-TV
- Driver hits woman, young daughter in Mid-Wilshire; mother killed KTLA 5
- Mother killed, daughter hospitalized after car crashes into Mid-Wilshire building FOX 11 Los Angeles
- ‘She Was Not Alone’: Woman Held Critically Injured Girl After Crash That Killed Her Mom NBC Southern California
- Driver who ran down young mother, daughter in Mid-Wilshire was likely ‘impaired,’ has been detained: LAPD KTLA Los Angeles
Massachusetts men with speed of ‘NASCAR pit crew’ allegedly stole 470 catalytic converters worth $2 million – New York Post
- Massachusetts men with speed of ‘NASCAR pit crew’ allegedly stole 470 catalytic converters worth $2 million New York Post
- Massachusetts men with speed of ‘NASCAR pit crew’ allegedly stole 470 catalytic converters worth $2 million Fox News
- ‘Like a NASCAR pit crew’: 7 arrested for hundreds of catalytic converter thefts in Mass., N.H. WCVB Channel 5 Boston
- ‘Extremely organized’ crew charged with stealing 470 catalytic converters across Mass., US Attorney announces The Boston Globe
- Operation Cut & Run: 7 arrested in connection with stealing catalytic converters across Massachusetts WWLP.com
New Neutron Camera has a Shutter Speed of One Trillionth of a Second – PetaPixel
- New Neutron Camera has a Shutter Speed of One Trillionth of a Second PetaPixel
- Novel neutron camera reveals atomic structure of future green technology Interesting Engineering
- New “camera” with shutter speed of 1 trillionth of a second sees through dynamic disorder of atoms EurekAlert
- New ‘camera’ with shutter speed of 1 trillionth of a second sees through dynamic disorder of atoms Phys.org
- New ‘camera’ with shutter speed of 1 trillionth of a second sees through dynamic disorder of atoms Samachar Central
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Shooting Tiny, High Speed Bullets at a Spacecraft Could Speed Up Travel to The Stars : ScienceAlert
Today, multiple space agencies are investigating cutting-edge propulsion ideas that will allow for rapid transits to other bodies in the Solar System.
These include NASA’s Nuclear-Thermal or Nuclear-Electric Propulsion (NTP/NEP) concepts that could enable transit times to Mars in 100 days (or even 45) and a nuclear-powered Chinese spacecraft that could explore Neptune and its largest moon, Triton.
While these and other ideas could allow for interplanetary exploration, getting beyond the Solar System presents some major challenges.
As we explored in a previous article, it would take spacecraft using conventional propulsion anywhere from 19,000 to 81,000 years to reach even the nearest star, Proxima Centauri (4.25 light-years from Earth). To this end, engineers have been researching proposals for uncrewed spacecraft that rely on beams of directed energy (lasers) to accelerate light sails to a fraction of the speed of light.
A new idea proposed by researchers from UCLA envisions a twist on the beam-sail idea: a pellet-beam concept that could accelerate a 1-ton spacecraft to the edge of the Solar System in less than 20 years.
The concept, titled “Pellet-Beam Propulsion for Breakthrough Space Exploration,” was proposed by Artur Davoyan, an Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
The proposal was one of fourteen proposals chosen by the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program as part of their 2023 selections, which awarded a total of US$175,000 in grants to develop the technologies further. Davoyan’s proposal builds on recent work with directed-energy propulsion (DEP) and light sail technology to realize a Solar Gravitational Lens.
As Prof. Davoyan told Universe Today via email, the problem with spacecraft is that they are still beholden to the Rocket Equation:
“All current spacecraft and rockets fly by expanding fuel. The faster the fuel is thrown away, the more efficient is the rocket. However, there is a limited amount of fuel that we can carry on board. As a result, the velocity a spacecraft can be accelerated to is limited. This fundamental limit is dictated by the Rocket Equation. The limitations of Rocket Equation translate into a relatively slow and costly space exploration. Such missions as Solar Gravitational Lens are not feasible with current spacecraft.”
The Solar Gravitational Lens (SGL) is a revolutionary proposal that would be the most powerful telescope ever conceived. Examples include the Solar Gravity Lens, which was selected in 2020 for NIAC Phase III development.
The concept relies on a phenomenon predicted by Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity known as Gravitational Lensing, where massive objects alter the curvature of spacetime, amplifying the light from objects in the background. This technique allows astronomers to study distant objects with greater resolution and precision.
By positioning a spacecraft at the heliopause (~500 AU from the Sun), astronomers could study exoplanets and distant objects with the resolution of a primary mirror measuring around 100 km (62 miles) in diameter. The challenge is developing a propulsion system that could get the spacecraft to this distance in a reasonable amount of time.
To date, the only spacecraft to reach interstellar space have been the Voyager 1 and 2 probes, which launched in 1977 and are currently about 159 and 132 AUs from the Sun (respectively).
When it left the Solar System, the Voyager 1 probe was traveling at a record-breaking velocity of about 17 km/s (38,028 mph), or 3.6 AU a year. Nevertheless, this probe still took 35 years to reach the boundary between the Sun’s solar wind and the interstellar medium (the heliopause).
At its current speed, it will take over 40,000 years for Voyager 1 to fly past another star system – AC+79 3888, an obscure star in the constellation Ursa Minor. For this reason, scientists are investigating directed energy (DE) propulsion to accelerate light sails, which could reach another star system in a matter of decades.
As Prof. Davoyan explained, this method offers some distinct advantages but also has its share of drawbacks:
“Laser sailing, unlike conventional spacecraft and rockets, does not require fuel on board to accelerate. Here acceleration comes from a laser pushing the spacecraft by radiation pressure. In principle, near-speed-of-light velocities can be reached with this method. However, laser beams diverge at long distances, meaning that there is only a limited distance range over which a spacecraft can be accelerated. This limitation of laser sailing leads to a need of having exorbitantly high laser powers, gigawatts, and in some proposals, terawatts, or puts a constraint on spacecraft mass.”
Examples of the laser-beam concept include Project Dragonfly, a feasibility study by the Institute for Interstellar Studies (i4is) for a mission that could reach a nearby star system within a century.
Then there’s Breakthrough Starshot, which proposes a 100-gigawatt (Gw) laser array that would accelerate gram-scale nanocraft (Starchip).
At a maximum velocity of 161 million km (100 million miles) or 20 percent of the speed of light, Starshot will be able to reach Alpha Centauri in about 20 years. Inspired by these concepts, Prof. Davoyan and his colleagues propose a novel twist on the idea: a pellet-beam concept.
This mission concept could serve as a fast-transit interstellar precursor mission, like Starshot and Dragonfly.
But for their purposes, Davoyan and his team examined a pellet-beam system that would propel a ~900 kg (1 U.S. ton) payload to a distance of 500 AU in less than 20 years. Said Davoyan:
“In our case, the beam pushing the spacecraft is made of tiny pellets, hence [we call it] the pellet beam. Each pellet is accelerated to very high velocities by laser ablation, and then the pellets carry their momentum to push the spacecraft.
Unlike a laser beam, pellets do not diverge as quickly, allowing us to accelerate a heavier spacecraft. The pellets, being much heavier than photons, carry more momentum and can transfer a higher force to a spacecraft.”
In addition, the small size and low mass of the pellets mean that they can be propelled by relatively low-power laser beams. Overall, Davoyan and his colleagues estimate that a 1-ton spacecraft could be accelerated to velocities of up to ~30 AU a year using a 10-megawatt (Mw) laser beam.
For the Phase I effort, they will demonstrate the feasibility of the pellet-beam concept through detailed modeling of the different subsystems and proof-of-concept experiments. They will also explore the utility of the pellet-beam system for interstellar missions that could explore neighboring stars in our lifetimes.
“The pellet beam aims to transform the way deep space is explored by enabling fast transit missions to far-away destinations,” said Davoyan. “With the pellet beam, outer planets can be reached in less than a year, 100 AU in about three years, and solar gravity lens at 500 AU in about 15 years. Importantly, unlike other concepts, the pellet-beam can propel heavy spacecraft (~1 ton), which substantially increases the scope of possible missions.”
If realized, an SGL spacecraft would allow astronomers to directly image neighboring exoplanets (like Proxima b) with multi pixel resolution and obtain spectra from their atmospheres. These observations would offer direct evidence of atmospheres, biosignatures, and possibly even technosignatures.
In this way, the same technology that lets astronomers directly image exoplanets and study them in extensive detail would also enable interstellar missions to explore them directly.
This article was originally published by Universe Today. Read the original article.
Octopath Traveler II details Ochette the Hunter, Castti the Apothecary, story structures, side stories, and game speed
Publisher Square Enix [5,093 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/companies/square-enix”>Square Enix and developer Acquire [286 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/companies/gungho-online-entertainment/acquire”>Acquire have released new information and screenshots for Octopath Traveler II [8 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/games/octopath-traveler-ii”>Octopath Traveler II introducing the tales of Ochette the Hunter and Castti the Apothecary, story structures, side stories, and game speed.
Get the details below.
■ Concept
About
This game is a brand-new entry in the Octopath Traveler [22 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/games/octopath-traveler”>Octopath Traveler series, the first installment of which was initially released in 2018 and sold over three million copies worldwide.
It takes the series’ HD-2D [20 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/series/hd-2d”>HD-2D graphics, a fusion of retro pixel art and 3D CG, to even greater heights. In the world of Solistia, eight new travelers venture forth into an exciting new era.
Where will you go? What will you do? Whose tale will you bring to life? Every path is yours to take. Embark on an Adventure [663 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/genres/adventure”>adventure all your own.
New World, New Tales [1 article]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/companies/new-tales”>New Tales
The story takes place in Solistia, a land comprising an eastern and western continent divided by the sea.
It is a bustling era, wherein large vessels navigate busy sea routes and the power of steam gives birth to new technologies.
Some people thrill to glamorous stars of the stage and industry, while others are brought to tears by war, plague, and poverty.
In this faraway realm, eight travelers hailing from different regions venture forth for their own reasons. Step into their shoes and explore the land as you see fit.
■ Ochette, the Hunter (voiced by Suzie Yeung in English, Aya Hirano in Japanese)
Your name is Ochette, and you are a hunter. Your tale begins on the isle of Toto’haha alongside your fellow beastlings.
Despite your troubles with the human islanders, you live a carefree life. That is, until you learn of an encroaching calamity known as the Night of the Scarlet Moon.
“All right, Master Juvah. I’ll do it. I’ll find those Creatures of Legend and bring them back.”
Desperate to save your home, you set sail in search of those who can help..
■ Characters in Ochette’s Tale
Isle Warden, Juvah – Master (voiced by Jaimeson Price in English, Yasuhiro Mamiya in Japanese)
Ochette’s master and leader of the beastlings who live on Toto’haha. He hopes she will one day become a protector of the island.
Aka [2 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/games/aka”>Akala – Companion (voiced by Daman Mills in English, Ryo Sugisaki in Japanese)
A lajackal, radiant in the sun’s grace. He acts as both a younger and older brother to Ochette along her journey.
Mahima – Companion (voiced by Cristina Vee in English, Marie Miyake in Japanese)
A malamaowl, serene in the grace of the moon [8 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/games/moon”>moon. She acts as both a younger and older sister to Ochette along her journey.
■ Ochette’s Tale Begins in Toto’haha
Southeastern Solistia is dominated by an ocean dotted by countless islands of all shapes and sizes. The largest of these is Toto’haha, which was first encountered by continental pioneers twenty years ago. In its western reaches reside the beastlings, a petite people with fluffy tails.
On the east of Toto’haha lies the town of Tropu’hopu, which was established by the first continental pioneers to settle on the island. The harbor town’s proximity to New Delsta caused it to be developed as a resort for the wealthy. In addition, it produces many luxury goods, such as delicious coffee beans, and now serves as an important stop along the trade routes between eastern and western continents.
—Solistia’s Isles, Toto’haha
—Beasting Village
—Tropu’hopu, a stop along trade routes.
■ Ochette’s Path Actions
Provoke
Challenge townspeople to battle. Fail, and your reputation will suffer.
—Ochette can set a monster on a townsperson and initiate a battle. Win, and they will be knocked unconscious. But fail too many times and your reputation will suffer, which means you won’t be allowed to use any Path Actions.
Befriend
Take a townsperson along on your journey. You must have a specific item to befriend them.
—You will need specific items like jerky to befriend someone. Your new friend can be summoned to help you in battle.
■ Ochette’s Talents: Capture & Prepare
Ochette can capture monsters and even turn them into items by preparing them.
—Ochette can capture monsters. Her success rates increase when an enemy’s HP is lowered, their weaknesses are exposed, they are afflicted with status ailments, and/or if they are broken. After defeating a monster, Ochette also has a set chance of automatically capturing it.
—Captured monsters can be summoned in battle. Although there is a limit to the number of monsters Ochette can capture, they can be summoned as many times as needed, making them powerful allies. They can also compensate for the elements and skills that Ochette cannot use.
—You can prepare captured monsters to turn them into useful items. This can be done at any time on the field, or when you have too many monsters in your party.
—Prepared items can be used for recovery, or even to befriend townspeople at night. The stronger the monster, the better the item, and the more powerful the people you can befriend.
■ Ochette’s Latent Power: Animal Instincts
When her latent power gauge is full, Ochette can let her inner beast loose and gain access to special skills.
—Ochette’s special skills include Beastly Claws, which assails all foes with a powerful physical attack, and Beastly Fangs, which unleashes a highly powerful physical attack on a single enemy.
—Animal Instincts’ skills do not consume any SP, making for simple and effective attacks.
■ Castti Florenz, the Apothecary (voiced by Sarah Weidenheft in English, Michiko Neya in Japanese)
Your name is Castti Florenz, and you are an apothecary. Your tale begins in a port town of the Harborlands.
Discovered adrift at sea, you awoke to the realization that you could not recall your own name. The only clues to your identity are your satchel and skills as an apothecary.
“I need to rediscover who I am. And…there’s something else. Something important I’m forgetting…”
Unable to ignore the nagging feeling within you, you embark on a journey to recover what you lost…
■ A Character in Castti’s Tale
Since Castti has lost her memories, her connections are shrouded in mystery.
Malaya (voiced by Heather Gonzalez in English, Megmumi Toyoguchi in Japanese)
A traveling apothecary who is awestruck by Castti, whose skills persist despite her memory loss. She is moved by Castti’s desire to help the townspeople and decides to lend her a helping hand.
■ Castti’s Adventure Begins in The Harborlands
Southern Solistia is home to long tracts of twisting coastline, along which one can find the bustling port of Canalbrine. During the Age of Exploration—roughly a hundred years ago—ships launched from this town’s piers would discover the sea routes that led to the eastern continent.
Canalbrine’s symbol is its colossal lighthouse, which guides ships from all corners of the world safely into its harbor. Erected roughly twenty years ago by a cadre of engineers who fled the destruction of the U, it boasts a unique design. Special ore was polished to a mirror sheen and fashioned into a reflector plate, and the light it emits can supposedly be seen all the way in New Delsta.
Today, Canalbrine’s church is an important launching point for proselytizers and evangelists who come from the eastern continent to spread the teachings of the Sacred Flame.
—The Harborland, a vast coastal region.
—The port town of Canalbrine.
—Canalbrine’s church.
■ Castti’s Path Actions
Inquire
Obtain information from townspeople. You must be the appropriate level to succeed.
—If Castti’s level is high enough, she can inquire to glean information from townspeople.
Soothe
Allay a townsperson’s pain, allowing them to sleep. You must have a specific item to soothe them.
—Castti can use specific items to soothe townspeople. The necessary item depends on who she is treating.
■ Castti’s Talent: Concoct
Castti can combine ingredients to craft healing and hazardous compounds.
–Castti can combine multiple ingredients to make healing and hazardous concoctions. You can boost to increase the number of ingredients and, depending on the compound, might even heal the entire party.
—Combine the right ingredients to assail an enemy’s weak points with a hazardous compound and you may be able to easily break them or inflict status ailments.
■ Castti’s Latent Power: Every Drop Counts
When her latent power gauge is full, Castti can concoct without expending any materials.
—Every Drop Counts allows Castti to concoct without using up any precious materials. At max boost, you can even conserve up to five materials in a single go. This is a useful power to have when aiding the party in both normal and boss battles.
■ Crossed Paths: Castti and Ochette
This installment includes Crossed Paths, which are stories involving two travelers.
Castti and Ochette arrive in the lively little village of Cropdale where they hear hunting has been poor lately. The two then head deep into the woods to investigate…
■ Different Stories, Different Structures
Each traveler’s tale has a different structure. Some have more than one objective, and you are free to choose how you want to proceed.
Throne, the thief, must decide whether to pursue Mother or Father first.
—If opting to pursue Father, Throne will make for the thieves’ town of Winterbloom where her target awaits.
—If choosing to pursue Mother, Throne will head to Oresrush to find clues on her target’s whereabouts.
The merchant, Partitio, can head to his next main story objective or follow the Scent of Commerce around the realm.
—You never know what treasures you may find during Partitio’s story..
The hunter, Ochette, must choose which companion to bring on her adventure.
—Either Mahinaor Akalā will help you on your journey. You cannot change your companion later, so choose wisely.
—Mahina
A malamaowl, serene in the grace of the moon.
She specializes in elemental attacks, and proactively assails the enemy’s weak points.
She is like a sister to Ochette.
–Akala
A lajackal, radiant in the sun’s grace.
He specializes in physical attacks, and proactively assails the enemy’s weak points.
He is like a brother to Ochette.
■ Side Stories
There are various side stories in addition to the eight main stories. Some problems have more than one solution, so utilize your Path Actions to help resolve the townspeople’s troubles.
—A merchant is at a loss when her horses suddenly go missing. Is there a way to help her before she must close her doors for good…?
—You can find the thief and Challenge him to a duel or Ambush him to get the horses back. Or…
—You can Allure or Guide a shorthanded rancher and introduce him to the merchant to help her find new employ.
■ Game Speed
In this installment, you can fast-forward event scenes and the automatic text speed at the touch of a button. You can also adjust the speed during battle, allowing you to enjoy the game at your preferred tempo.
—Event scenes and battles can be fast-forwarded to double their original speed, smoothing out leveling up and other Action [864 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/genres/action”>actions.
Study Shows How The Universe Would Look if You Broke The Speed of Light, And It’s Weird : ScienceAlert
Nothing can go faster than light. It’s a rule of physics woven into the very fabric of Einstein’s special theory of relativity. The faster something goes, the closer it gets to its perspective of time freezing to a standstill.
Go faster still, and you run into issues of time reversing, messing with notions of causality.
But researchers from the University of Warsaw in Poland and the National University of Singapore have now pushed the limits of relativity to come up with a system that doesn’t run afoul of existing physics, and might even point the way to new theories.
What they’ve come up with is an “extension of special relativity” that combines three time dimensions with a single space dimension (“1+3 space-time”), as opposed to the three spatial dimensions and one time dimension that we’re all used to.
Rather than creating any major logical inconsistencies, this new study adds more evidence to back up the idea that objects might well be able to go faster than light without completely breaking our current laws of physics.
“There is no fundamental reason why observers moving in relation to the described physical systems with speeds greater than the speed of light should not be subject to it,” says physicist Andrzej Dragan, from the University of Warsaw in Poland.
This new study builds on previous work by some of the same researchers which posits that superluminal perspectives could help tie together quantum mechanics with Einstein’s special theory of relativity – two branches of physics that currently can’t be reconciled into a single overarching theory that describes gravity in the same way we explain other forces.
Particles can no longer be modelled as point-like objects under this framework, as we might in the more mundane 3D (plus time) perspective of the Universe.
Instead, to make sense of what observers might see and how a superluminal particle might behave, we’d need to turn to the kinds of field theories that underpin quantum physics.
Based on this new model, superluminal objects would look like a particle expanding like a bubble through space – not unlike a wave through a field. The high-speed object, on the other hand, would ‘experience’ several different timelines.
Even so, the speed of light in a vacuum would remain constant even for those observers going faster than it, which preserves one of Einstein’s fundamental principles – a principle that has previously only been thought about in relation to observers going slower than the speed of light (like all of us).
“This new definition preserves Einstein’s postulate of constancy of the speed of light in vacuum even for superluminal observers,” says Dragan.
“Therefore, our extended special relativity does not seem like a particularly extravagant idea.”
However, the researchers acknowledge that switching to a 1+3 space-time model does raise some new questions, even while it answers others. They suggest that extending the theory of special relativity to incorporate faster-than-light frames of reference is needed.
That may well involve borrowing from quantum field theory: a combination of concepts from special relativity, quantum mechanics, and classical field theory (which aims to predict how physical fields are going to interact with each other).
If the physicists are right, the particles of the Universe would all have extraordinary properties in extended special relativity.
One of the questions raised by the research is whether or not we would ever be able to observe this extended behavior – but answering that is going to require a lot more time and a lot more scientists.
“The mere experimental discovery of a new fundamental particle is a feat worthy of the Nobel Prize and feasible in a large research team using the latest experimental techniques,” says physicist Krzysztof Turzyński, from the University of Warsaw.
“However, we hope to apply our results to a better understanding of the phenomenon of spontaneous symmetry breaking associated with the mass of the Higgs particle and other particles in the Standard Model, especially in the early Universe.”
The research has been published in Classical and Quantum Gravity.
‘Dynamic Soaring’ Trick Could Speed Spacecraft Across Interstellar Space : ScienceAlert
Sailing to the stars on the scale of human lifetimes could be a matter of choosing the right kind of wind.
Researchers from McGill University in Canada and the Tau Zero Foundation in the US have proposed a new way to cross the extraordinary distances of interstellar space, using a whole lot of nothing and a touch of inspiration from seabirds.
Until now, one of the most promising solutions to space travel makes use of the spectrum of starlight streaming from the Sun. Though small in impact, sheer numbers and high speeds make photons an intriguing source of power for building up the high velocity needed to cross light-years of emptiness in a short time.
Innovations in solar sail technology have progressed considerably over the years, with models going as far as being tested in the hostile environments of our inner Solar System.
Though functional, solar sails all have one downside in common: the sail itself. Solar sails must stretch meters across to catch the photons needed to propel a craft.
They also need the right shape and material to turn every photon’s tiny bit of momentum into movement. And they need to shed heat well enough not to distort and break.
This isn’t just a headache in materials science; all of these requirements add mass. Even using the lightest materials known, the fastest speeds we might achieve using our Sun’s radiation would be just over 2 percent the speed of light, meaning a trip to the nearest star would still take a few centuries.
Needless to say, sailing to the stars would be a lot easier if we could ditch the sails part.
Fortunately, another kind of gale blows from the solar surface, one made not of photons but a plasma of ions whipped into a frenzy by the snap and crackle of the Sun’s magnetic fields.
Though there are far fewer high-speed electrons and protons blasting from the Sun than photons, their charged masses pack a greater punch.
Such particles would usually be a problem for typical sails, imparting their charges on the material’s surface like static on a woolen jumper in winter, creating drag and changing the sail’s shape.
Yet as anybody who has ever tried pushing the poles of magnets together knows all too well, an electromagnetic field can provide resistance without requiring a large, solid surface.
And so it’s goodbye shiny material, and hello superconductor. A cable just a few meters long could, in theory, produce a field wide enough to deflect the Sun’s charged wind on the scale of tens to hundreds of kilometers.
The system would act more like a magnetic parachute, one that is being dragged by a flow of particles moving at speeds of close to 700 kilometers (about 430 miles) a second, or just under a quarter of a percent of the speed of light.
This isn’t bad, but as birds like the albatross know, the winds don’t set the speed limits when it comes to flying high.
By looping in and out of air masses moving at different velocities, seabirds can pick up the energy of a headwind, using what’s known as dynamic soaring to gain speed before returning to their original trajectory.
Using a similar trick in the ‘headwind’ of the termination shock – a turbulent zone of contrasting stellar winds used by astronomers to define the edge of our Solar System – a magnetic sail could exceed the solar wind’s speeds, potentially bringing it within reach of solar sails based on radiation alone.
Though the technology might not initially seem much faster than the ‘traditional’ solar sails method, other forms of turbulence at the fringes of interstellar space might provide a bigger boost.
Even without a gentle nudge from dynamic soaring, feasible plasma-based technology could put cube-sat satellites around Jupiter within months rather than years.
Like the age of sail of yore, there are plenty of ways we might be able to take advantage of the currents that wash through the vastness of space.
And still, the seabirds show us the way.
This research was published in Frontiers in Space Technologies.