ext_12863 ([identity profile] james-nicoll.livejournal.com) wrote in [personal profile] james_davis_nicoll 2005-04-20 05:04 pm (UTC)

Re: The (something) Enemy

No, that doesn't work. Problem one is that the power source for the laser is going to produce insane amounts of heat because the eqn for light pressure is

P = FC

Where P is power, F is force and C is the speed of light. Mirrors get twice as much bang for their P buck as emitters but P is still going to be large even for small values of F.

The other problem is, even if the Oppressive Central Government is too cheap to scatter sensors around the system, that mirror is going to be huge and will reflect light on the sunward side. It will probably also heat up, which should be obvious against the thermal background of the galaxy.

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