Chapter 316: No working fluid engine

Since scientists at the time had a very in-depth understanding of electromagnetics, they also inferred the magnitude of light pressure.
In 1924, Tsiolkovsky and his colleague Chandel jointly proposed the feasibility concept of solar sails, describing the idea that humans could use the light pressure of solar sails to provide interstellar flight in the future.
The principle of light pressure is very simple, which is to use the thrust generated by the photon hitting the object.
Perhaps most people think this kind of thing is too exaggerated, because when normal people are in the sun every day, they will not feel hit by photons at all. This is because the area is too small and the mass is relatively large. Among them, it is not so obvious.
However, as long as the area is large enough, light pressure can be used to fly.
First of all, because the power source of the solar sail comes from the sun, it does not need to carry fuel. According to Newton's second law, it can be known that this is very beneficial to the acceleration of the aircraft.
At the same time, the light pressure provided by the sun can also bring a very objective thrust.
According to calculations by scientists, if the area of ​​the solar sail can reach 70,000 square meters, the light pressure will generate a thrust of 0.34 tons.
Although this thrust is not very large, it can provide power for a long time, so it is always in a state of acceleration.
If it is a long-distance interstellar voyage, even if nuclear fusion is carried, it is completely useless, because nuclear fusion is a working fluid engine that needs to carry a lot of fuel.
If it is an electric propulsion engine, it needs electric energy. If you want to fly a long distance, then the battery should be larger accordingly.
If you don’t need batteries and directly get a nuclear fusion generator on the spacecraft, then maintaining nuclear fusion requires a lot of fuel, and if it’s heavy nuclear fusion, you need a lot of stones.
So this will gradually increase the mass and weight of the spacecraft, leading to problems similar to those of rocket launches on Earth.
The larger the volume, the higher the thrust. However, after the larger the volume, the mass and weight will also increase. If you make a comprehensive calculation, the thrust is not improved at all.
The same is true for substituting this into a spacecraft. If the spacecraft’s thrust is insufficient and does not provide continuous acceleration of energy, it is afraid that it will be pulled back by the gravity of the solar system before flying out of the solar system.
So after the concept of solar sail was put forward at that time, it also aroused the thinking of many physicists and space experts, because it is equivalent to a kind of "no working fluid" engine.
If the probe carried by the solar sail weighs 500 kilograms, then with the help of light pressure, it can reach Mars within 200 days, which is basically exactly the same as the current speed.
If the area of ​​the solar sail reaches 3 square kilometers, the thrust will reach 1.5 tons, and it will be no problem to fly out of the solar system.
If it's an ordinary person, the scientist would probably scold his mother if he said that, because it sounds like nonsense.
It's just that there is nothing impossible at all, because space is a high vacuum environment, even if the area is large, there is no air resistance.
It's not like a fighter plane in the earth's atmosphere, or a rocket or the like, all of which have to be made in line with aerodynamics.
However, there is no resistance in space, so we can do weird things. Even a hedgehog ball can fly fast as long as it is fast enough.
And when the steam locomotive just came out two hundred years ago, people at that time did not expect that the carriage would be eliminated, nor did they expect that the world is full of cars today.
Therefore, the development of science and technology will make all seemingly impossible things possible, even this kind of technology is the same.
Of course, if there is a scientist who now says that he can make Thanos' gloves and can wipe out half of the universe with a snap of his fingers, then this is not a scientist, but a magic stick.
Therefore, with the development of human science and technology, it is only a matter of time for an aircraft of this size to be built.
Of course, because the rocket space is very limited now, and the solar sail cannot be installed in an area of ​​tens of thousands or even hundreds of square meters, so if you want to launch the solar sail into space, you must fold it. Get up and unfold after lift-off.
After being completely unfolded in space, the solar sail will absorb the light pressure of sunlight to the maximum extent with a wide area, and achieve continuous acceleration.
Of course, if you are too far away from the sun, the received solar radiation will be reduced accordingly, so the theory at that time was also to place related engines behind the solar sail to provide further acceleration.
If the solar sail is large enough, it only takes five years to fly from the earth to Pluto, or even twenty years to reach Proxima.
Because there is no resistance in space ~EbookFREE.me~ there is only gravity between celestial bodies, and the increase in speed cannot be measured by the laws of physics on the ground at all.
Therefore, whether it is long-distance navigation or ultra-long-distance navigation, solar sails are currently the most promising next-generation space power device to help mankind achieve a breakthrough and break out of the solar system.
Today's scientists have also practiced the possibility of solar sails.
The Planetary Association of Amegian is the world's largest non-profit space research team composed of the famous astronomer and popular science writer Karl Sagan.
They have long been committed to promoting the advancement of human space exploration technology in various forms, so they are not lagging behind in terms of solar sails. They conducted the first solar sail test in 2015.
Later, in June 2019, their Light Sail 2 was launched into the sky, and the polyester canvas was successfully unfolded on July 23.
Due to financial and technological constraints, their solar sails are about 5 meters long, which is 25 square meters. However, the thickness of their solar sails is less than one-tenth of human hair.
On July 31, they used the light pressure received by Guangfan 2 to transform into power, and successfully raised the orbit of Guangfan 2 by 125 miles. Although the change was not very large, it also proved that the solar sail The feasibility.
Later, China's domestic research team also began to conduct related research on solar sails. Previously, the research on the "Tianfan No. 1" of the Shenyang Institute of Automation had been launched and it was reported in news.
Both domestic and foreign light sails use polyimide resin material, because this material can be made very thin, with a thickness of only 7.5 microns, which is equivalent to about one-tenth of the diameter of a hair.