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Mac til death

macrumors regular
Oct 13, 2002
158
0
Memphis
that reminds me of the movie Independence Day where the Alien fighters were powered by the presence of the mother-ship (über-Alien bluetooth).

/me goes to watch Independence Day. ;)
 

rainman::|:|

macrumors 603
Feb 2, 2002
5,438
2
iowa
when i read the words "NASA flies plan with no on-board fuel"... all i could think was, "oh, christ, those people need to pay more attention!"

pnw
 

dstorey

macrumors 6502a
Dec 14, 2002
527
0
oh boy.....and people say mobile phone masts are bad for you health......anyone wanna try toasting marhmellows on one of these beams ;)
 

mymemory

macrumors 68020
May 9, 2001
2,495
-1
Miami
1. You are yous chnging the location of the fuel tank. Not you are fulling the laser beam.

2. If you really need to carry heavy things like a satelite you will need a few hundred thousans of lasers and not mention the size of the wings to capture all the required energy. It is gonna be cheaper to use regular fuel tanks.
 

Mr. Anderson

Moderator emeritus
Nov 1, 2001
22,568
6
VA
a small model plane is one thing - a larger one is something else - how big is the laser and what happens if you accidently get in the way between the plane and the laser? :D

D
 

tpjunkie

macrumors 65816
Nov 24, 2002
1,251
5
NYC
Hmm, they don't mention the wavelength of the laser, only that it's not visible light. While low infrared lasers wouldn't be too harmful, I don't think something in the X-ray range would be too healthy to get near.
 

wdlove

macrumors P6
Oct 20, 2002
16,568
0
Great article. Sounds like the laser fuel system would be very helpful for surveillance. According to the article if the beam is cut off the plane will safely glide back and land.
 

Dont Hurt Me

macrumors 603
Dec 21, 2002
6,055
6
Yahooville S.C.
great blah blah blah, they(Nasa) constantly come up with all kinds of dreams, etc ..and a lil bull...t but dont even have a way into space at this moment. this is very sad. when growing up in the 60's 70's i thought our space program was going somewhere except i forgot one thing. Govt took it all over. we never built a easy way into space infrastructure.Govt got its hands on it. continuation of x-15 like craft to me is the way to go with current edge technology. If we are to ever open up space this has to be done in a safe and lot less expensive way then the 70's technology shuttle. 2 accidents are 2 two many. design a good way to space-/orbit/-station....design a good spacecraft for lunar earth orbits/landings. space 1999 like or what ever......
 

G4scott

macrumors 68020
Jan 9, 2002
2,225
5
USA_WA
Nasa's first spacecraft were basically ICBM's with people attached to the top. They figured, heck, if we can hit Russia, we can hit the moon.

There is a lot of innovation going on right now at Nasa. That's what this is. They experiment and come up with new ways to do things. Without things like this, they'll never have another way to get into space. Rocket propulsion wasn't invented in a day. It took hundreds of years of research, from early chinese firecrackers to where we are now. These toys are the gateway for the future. We need to work on getting these seemingly small and insignificant technologies to work more efficiently. Sure, it'd be easier to strap a rocket onto a spacecraft and launch it that way, but it's not the safest thing to do. Just because it's cheaper and easier doesn't mean it's better. And besides, if this stuff doesn't make it into space, it may some day make it into your everyday lives. Things like microwaves, velcro, computer chips, and lots of other stuff weren't originally designed to be used by the masses, but we use them now because somebody discovered something new, and saw different applications for their idea.
 

Dont Hurt Me

macrumors 603
Dec 21, 2002
6,055
6
Yahooville S.C.
the problem is Nasa has built up enough paperwork to cover the empire state building with projects,experiments,failed attempts etc,more failure' recent x- crafts and at this moment America has no way into space? we never came up with any alternatives except on paper and Nasa is famous for creating paper. so hoorah we have a how many ounces was the plane? flying at what cost? meanwhile if we want to go in space we need the Russians or soon to be Chinese. Terrific :rolleyes:
 
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