alt Hacker News> No, not even close.
10% of C is theoretically possible with a space sail, and lasers.
Will it work? Well we don't know cause we haven't tried.
> No, not even close.
10% of C is theoretically possible with a space sail, and lasers.
Will it work? Well we don't know cause we haven't tried.
Space sails are super low thrust though, even lower than my VASIMIR example - so will take even longer to reach the desired speed - though they have the advantage of not having to carry the complex and heavy engine I ignored that in the rough estimates anyway.
So by the time they're theoretically close to the desired speed they'll be on the other side of the galaxy at least, even if it took millions of years to get there at the much slower average speed.