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Extraterrestrial Nanolaser Transceivers

Fire self-aligning nanolasers at near the speed of light to create a 'fiber optic' channel reaching to nearby another star.
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Today, nanolasers are small, like 35nm each (see link). As a receiver, put a photo-sensor of the same size. Attach a battery and counterweight with a tiny computer to adjust directions. Envelope in omnidirectional photosensor matrix. Test. Mass produce. Create a linear magnetic accelerator in space. Release. Use as a communication channel for any miro-sized probe travelling in parallel. Enjoy hi-res pictures of planets nearby another star.
Mindey, Oct 09 2014

utexas.edu http://www.utexas.e...ated-ut-scientists/
World’s Smallest Semiconductor Laser Created by University of Texas Scientists [Mindey, Oct 09 2014]

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       … once your "micro-probe" gets there and starts relaying information.   

       Which will take a while.   

       Scenario 1:   

       Humans send a small probe using "best available technology" to Proxima Centauri. A reasonably achievable velocity using Newtonian reaction drives is about 3 x 10^5 m/s. That's 0.0001 C. So, 24,000 years to get there.   

       Scenario 2:   

       Humans develop a sub-C drive capable of 0.1 C. 48 year round trip. Relativistic effects may apply.   

       Scenario 3:   

       Quit messing around with nanolasers and develop a proper non- Newtonian spacedrive. C'mon, it's not that hard. Lots of other species have done it.
8th of 7, Oct 11 2014
  

       You might have heard of published laser tweezers and optical tractor beams. I have wondered if you can beam these into far space to move matter around at a distance. If you aim them at something like telescope detected water vapor, over an over again, at say 10^1000 different places you could build little nanomachines that at least at some locations would actually function. That is a way to build nanomachines light years away from earth. Some of the nanomachines could of course emit light to tell you they had been successfully built and even await instructions on what to actually make at the far distance.
beanangel, Feb 15 2019
  

       // laser tweezers //   

       [beanangel], yes I had, and indeed, this line of reasoning, combined with matter provided as bodies of the transceivers, could make this into a remote factory of nanobots. Very very far-fetched, but plausible.
Mindey, Feb 15 2019
  

       I'm not sure I follow. Is the idea to establish a sort of relay- track of nanolasers, so that a distant probe with a weak transmitter can send signals back to Earth?
MaxwellBuchanan, Feb 15 2019
  

       [MaxwellBuchanan], yes, exactly! And, use particle accelerator to accelerate them. :)
Mindey, Feb 15 2019
  

       What is the repeaters' energy source, and how much power do these lasers need? I guess you could use photodiodes for receiving, and they'd double as mediocre solar cells, but there's not much light out there. Juno, at Jupiter, gets only 4% of the power it got at Earth, and that's still well within the Solar System.   

       Regarding travel time, it can be made more reasonable, if you believe Breakthrough Starshot's preposterous-sounding numbers.
notexactly, Feb 16 2019
  

       I'm sure Miro would be flattered, it might fit in with his Surrealist works.
not_morrison_rm, Feb 16 2019
  


 

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