> According to my reference, the force per watt of radiation is about
> 3e-9 newtons. This implies a total force if we could capture all
> the light from the sun of about 3e17 newtons. Divided by the mass of
> the sun, 2e30 kg, gives an acceleration of 1.5e-13 meters per second.
> If we wanted to move the sun one light year, accelerating for half that
> time and decelerating for half, we'd have to accelerate it about 4.7e15
> meters, twice. d = 1/2 a t^2 so this gives us a t of 5e14 seconds for
> the whole trip, or about 10,000,000 years.
Yes, "solar sailing" is very slow business. Of course, in 10 million
years you will most likely have another star within 1 ly, and you can use
it as a slingshot...
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Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension!
nv91-asa@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~nv91-asa/main.html
GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y