Let’s talk about how to get a spacecraft moving without onboard propellant. As noted last week, this is apropos of the design shown in the Netflix streaming video take on Liu Cixin’s novels, which the network titles ‘3 Body Problem.’ There, a kind of ‘runway’ is conceived, one made up of nuclear weapons that go off in sequence to propel a sail and its payload. The plan is to attain 0.012 c and reach an oncoming fleet that is headed to Earth but will not arrive for another four centuries. This... Read this story
