The only way to travel the speed of light is to use it as a propellant.

originally posted by: Gothmog

originally posted by: oldcarpy
a reply to: Gothmog


What about solar sails?


Solar Sails Wiki

Solar Sails work from the photons "bouncing" off of a reflective surface. Completely different idea. Make those same sails olive green and you aint goin nowhere.
Works well if you can wait 5 years to reach 100 mph....

The link I posted on the previous page quotes NASA data which appears to show that their Near-Earth-Asteroid-Scout (NEA), propelled by a solar sail, will reach speeds of 63,975 mph (relative to the sun) in only 2.5 years.

The same article goes on to say;

[...] it took the Voyager I spacecraft 35 years to reach the boundary of the solar system. A solar sail could make the same trip in 20 years,...

I believe the answer to the OP's question '[is there] any theory on using LIGHT as a propellant in space?' is yes.

What engineer in their right mind would design a reflective sail with an olive green surface?

a reply to: BASSPLYR

I'm Dyslexic mate, spelling has never been my strong point. LoL

originally posted by: andy06shake
a reply to: Gothmog

Essentially it amounts to bringing the mountain to Mohammed because its impossible for Mohamed to move the mountain.

Space-time is not yet fully understood hence our ability to predict what it can and cannot do is also not yet fully understood.

Further understanding of gravity, electromagnetics and the strong/weak nuclear forces that play there part are required before we can unequivocally say what space-time can be made to do.

No , no it does not....
Think of a flat-lined oscilloscope
Now , think of a very compressed wave on that same oscilloscope .
Each peak to peak being the same distance as the original flat line
Now , you travel from peak to peak , thus eliminating most of the original distance.
That is warping the space time fabric. Compressing ( not folding) space in front of a craft , then expanding behind.
Too much Dune and Level 3 Navigators ?
I used to think if I encased myself in caffeine , I could "fold" space too

a reply to: TheJesuit

Find a way to temporarily turn the craft/ship and all within the craft/ship into photons.
Now the craft/ship can travel at various speeds of light.
Upon reaching destination convert back into dense matter...

a reply to: Gothmog


So, why do you think that you can't have a lit torch in space, then?

a reply to: TheJesuit

Theoretically, if we can teleport/bilocate information, then we could also do the same with conventional matter, considering said matter is also comprised of information.

But the question arises, even if we could, are we more than just the sum of our parts?

We might be connected to the quantum realm in ways we have yet to full release so teleportation from one location to another at the macro scale might present a whole quagmire of quantum conundrums we cannot yet imagine.

Essentially are you, you at the other end, or are you a copy of the original? Is there even a difference?

a reply to: Gothmog

But you are not travelling from peak to peak, you would be essentially manipulating the wave on the scope to bring both peeks together.

Coffee is our friend, I've had about 8 cups since 11am. LoL

maybe i'm crazy but i think that will be our path eventually, not to go faster but slower, in age, thought, perception and movement, if 100,000 years pass in mere seconds to you who needs light speed or huge amounts of power.

a reply to: TheJesuit

I would not suggest a craft could attain the speed of light, but it could easily use light as a propellant.

It has been noted that there have been experiments with solar sails. It has also been noted that ground based lasers have been used to push similar sails.

Why not make a "hybred" of the two, but not use ground based lasers. A craft could very easily carry an array of lasers which would be used to push the craft's sail as it travels through space. Since a craft would need a generator system to produce power for any internal activities,some of this power could also be used to operate an array of lasers.
This would also make it possible to steer the craft as opposed to always traveling in a straight line. Turning would be very very slow, but still possible.

originally posted by: MerkabaTribeEntity

originally posted by: Gothmog

originally posted by: oldcarpy
a reply to: Gothmog


What about solar sails?


Solar Sails Wiki

Solar Sails work from the photons "bouncing" off of a reflective surface. Completely different idea. Make those same sails olive green and you aint goin nowhere.
Works well if you can wait 5 years to reach 100 mph....

The link I posted on the previous page quotes NASA data which appears to show that their Near-Earth-Asteroid-Scout (NEA), propelled by a solar sail, will reach speeds of 63,975 mph (relative to the sun) in only 2.5 years.

The same article goes on to say;

[...] it took the Voyager I spacecraft 35 years to reach the boundary of the solar system. A solar sail could make the same trip in 20 years,...

I believe the answer to the OP's question '[is there] any theory on using LIGHT as a propellant in space?' is yes.

What engineer in their right mind would design a reflective sail with an olive green surface?

Because I was responding to a post directed at me about solar sails.
Light works due to the "bouncing" of the photons off a reflective surface. Not because light in itself is a "propellant" . And it is nowhere near effective enough to accelerate an object to the speed of light WHICH IS EXACTLY WHAT THE OP WAS ASKING IN THE START OF THIS THREAD....AND IN THE TITLE

63,975 miles/hour is nowhere near the 186,282 miles/second that light travels at . Again , the original question in thread title even...
You did read the title , yes ?

originally posted by: oldcarpy
a reply to: Gothmog


So, why do you think that you can't have a lit torch in space, then?

I do believe we have a bit of geographic gap here. I am just going out on a limb, but I think one persons "torch" may be a flashlight and not an actual "torch" - just sayin.

Dorian Soran

originally posted by: andy06shake
a reply to: Gothmog

But you are not travelling from peak to peak, you would be essentially manipulating the wave on the scope to bring both peeks together.

Coffee is our friend, I've had about 8 cups since 11am. LoL

Compressing....not folding.
Search for definitions of both.
Which this entire conversation is off-topic
Back on topic , light cannot be used as a propellant to enable an object to move at the speed of light.
The only way to conceivably move an object through space at the speed of light is to negate mass.

a reply to: Gothmog

And negative mass/exotic matter might just hold the keys to the manipulation of space-time and/or a working Albercurrie drive type method of travel.

Might even be able to construct Einstein Rosen bridges if we ever discover what exotic matter is or how to produce the stuff.

I agree with you that light(photons) will never be able to be used to propel a craft faster than light as physics pretty much dictates.

a reply to: TheJesuit

The main problem you would have in trying to attain lightspeed, using photons of light only to push the craft, is that photons have no mass.

When a spacecraft pushes x lbs of gas out of its back end in space, there is a corresponding force applied to the craft, and the craft moves. But this is because reaction mass is being ejected at a known rate, which causes the craft to move after the energy has been exchanged between the craft and the fuel being blasted out from it.

But that reaction mass quite literally has actual mass when in its rest state. Photons are considered to have no mass, and have no rest state (because they are never still, always moving). So blasting photons out of a vehicles rear quarters, will not make it move. Now, if that craft had a solar sail, and was facing the sun, or some massive laser emitter of some sort, you could use photons bouncing off of that to produce thrust, but only when the solar sail and the source of the photons were close enough together, that the photons did not scatter too broadly to produce the movement.

a reply to: TheJesuit

I had a heated argument with a friend about light speed travel and why it wouldn't work.

1. solar sails might be able to get-if lucky-300,000 kph, which would take about 70 minutes to get to the moon, let alone the nearest star.

2. Space is not entirely a vacuum-there are cosmic rays and stray atoms, it would be safer to stand near a nuclear blast (although that will kill you much slower depending where you are standing)

google Von Neumann probes-Those are our safest chance of preserving our race.

so then if you can negate the 'weight' of the ship somehow, you can attain light speed. since the only thing stopping it the mass.

even at light speed, its too slow to see the galaxy, let alone the universe.

quantum teleportation is the trick humans need to attain.
our molecules are all vibrating at a certain trajectory.
so all we need to do is turn those vibrations into the vibrations into another part of the galaxy, and we will just be there, instantly.

of course, learning how to attune the vibrations of quantum particles is impossible lol, let alone figuring out what the vibations of the pleides are.

a reply to: dantanna


Suppose the thing stopping it is the required energy/propellant which is infinite.

As you approach lightspeed your length would also shrink to zero which might also present some serious problems for any occupants of the craft.

But its all arbitrary really because there is not enough material in the universe to propel a craft faster than light using conventional means of propulsion.

a reply to: TheJesuit

Solar sails lol..

There are only a gajillion documentaries on them lol.

a reply to: Gothmog

What do you think solar sails are lol??