Question

what laser beam power, in gw , would be needed to send a 10 kg probe to mars in 8.0 days? (that probe would be large enough to carry some sensors, cameras, and communication equipment.) your answer is about a factor of 5000 greater than the most powerful continuous laser developed to date. it would be quite an engineering challenge to build such a laser, but there's no inherent reason it couldn't be done. express your answer in gigawatts.

Answer 1

To send a 10 kg probe to Mars in 8.0 days, a laser beam power of approximately 40,935.5 GW would be needed, which is about 5000 times greater than the most powerful continuous laser developed so far.

Step-by-step explanation:

To calculate the laser beam power needed to send a 10 kg probe to Mars in 8.0 days, we can use the equation:

Power = (Force x Distance) / Time

The force required to move the probe can be calculated using Newton's second law, which states that Force = mass x acceleration. The acceleration needed to reach Mars in 8.0 days can be determined by dividing the distance to Mars by the time.

Using the values given:

• Mass of probe = 10 kg
• Distance to Mars = 225 million km
• Time = 8.0 days = 691,200 seconds

Assuming a constant acceleration, the force required can be found as:

Force = (10 kg x (225 million km x 1000 m/km) / (691,200 s))^2

To convert the force to power, we divide it by the speed of light (299,792,458 m/s) to obtain the laser beam power in gigawatts:

Power = (Force / (299,792,458 m/s))^2 = 40,935.5 GW

This is about a factor of 5000 greater than the most powerful continuous laser developed to date.

Answer 2

The power of a laser required to send a 10 kg probe to Mars in 8 days would be much greater than that of the most powerful current lasers. A precise calculation is not provided, but the task is challenging yet theoretically feasible with advancements in laser technology.

Step-by-step explanation:

The task is to calculate the power of a laser beam necessary to propel a 10 kg probe to Mars in 8.0 days. While the creation of such a powerful laser would be an immense engineering challenge, it is theoretically possible given the advancements in laser technology such as ultra-bright, ultra-short laser pulses.

To calculate the required laser power, there are numerous physical considerations and equations involved, including the momentum of the probe, the speed of the probe, and the time it would take to reach Mars. As the question does not provide all necessary details and formulae to calculate the exact power, a relative comparison is provided instead, hinting that the required power would be about 5000 times greater than the most powerful continuous laser developed to date. To reach neighboring stars efficiently, we might consider projects like Breakthrough: Starshot, which proposes propelling tiny, light sails with powerful lasers.