In a video for ‘NASA 360’, scientist Philip Lubin has said that there will come a time when we can reach Mars in just three days by using a system known as ‘photonic propulsion’.
Lubin wrote a paper on this in April 2015, and this video released in early February follows his findings. In A Roadmap to Interstellar Flight, he writes about the incredible feats in space travel that have been achieved, but with the current propulsion technology we will never reach our nearest stars.
He proposes a program that will allow for spacecrafts to reach speeds of faster than 1,000 km/second.
These systems can be propelled to speeds currently unimaginable with existing propulsion technologies. To do so requires a fundamental change in our thinking of both propulsion and, in many cases, what a spacecraft is.A Roadmap to Interstellar Flight
‘Photonic Propulsion’ could vastly decrease the time it takes to get to Mars. The system involves shooting Earth-orbiting lasers at extremely thin spacecraft to propel them at extremely fast speeds through space.
Normal spacecrafts move forward by firing propellant in the opposite direction of its travel. Photonic Propulsion would work the same way, except it will be using lasers. This implies that the spacecraft could accelerate for longer and reach far higher speeds. Additionally, heavy fuel does not need to be carried on board.
We could propel a 100 kg aircraft to Mars in a few days.Philip Lubin, NASA Scientist
Lubin said, ‘there is no reason why we can not do this’. He added that this concept would not be used for manned flights.
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