I know this isn't a myth but I was thinking...NASA is holding a contest for building a space elevator, one team uses lasers to propel the machine up the tether like an elevator. This got me thinking, if a laser can be used to propel an object can gamma rays do the same? Perhaps not in our lifetime, gamma ray bursts (GRB) can be used to propel spacecraft at near light speed. A large surface area can be used on the rear of the ship to double as a sort of sail for the gamma rays to push on and a shield to protect the crew and electronics. I know this is far fetched and most likely could never work and plus the fact that how would we get to a star in the first place for a GRB but it was just an idea.

Well...

I got news for ya...

IT WOULD WORK!!!!!!!!!

If u want to vaporize the nearby area... and by that I mean like more than 50 light years wide (?)

But thats not a myth, u said it urself, might even be impossible, PLUS... even if it was possible that would be a lil too expensive.

Yea that was my problem, I was thinking of how to negate the vaporizing effect but perhaps if station far enough a way maybe just maybe in the distant future perhaps it could happen, and yea it would be extremely expensive lol.

Hehe it would be fun tho...


You would look at the solar system totally vaporized and you would be like "Oh, Sumfin tells me that someone used a GRB to propel a spaceship round here "

In a way, this is already being looked into.

The idea of using a laser to propel a space craft is simular to the idea of a Solar Sail.

Basically use the sun's light to push a space craft along.

The application is quie a bit different, but it's a start.

In the design of the space elevator that won the NASA competition does use a laser to power the elevator car but it is not the light that is pushing the car. They are using photoelectric cells on the elevator car that they aim the ground based laser at to power the cars electric motors to raise and lower it.

Ah I see now, that makes more sense for the lasers to power the motors, perhaps something similar to a solar sail would be more in line with what I'm thinking of.