Energy needed to propel a tiny spacecraft to Proxima Centauri,and, an unstated assumption in Einstein's 1905 paper

C. J. Umrigar; Tyler A. Anderson

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arXiv · 2502.04331

Energy needed to propel a tiny spacecraft to Proxima Centauri,and, an unstated assumption in Einstein's 1905 paper

C. J. Umrigar·Tyler A. Anderson

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Abstract

The Breakthrough Starshot project aims to send a tiny 2 gram spacecraft to Proxima Centauri propelled by a light sail and powerful Earth-based lasers. We provide two derivations of the laser energy required to propel the spacecraft and give the reader the opportunity to decide which one is correct before providing the answer. In the second part of this paper we point out that one of the formulae in Einstein's amazing 1905 paper is correct only in certain limits, but Einstein fails to mention that. This has caused some confusion in the Breakthrough Starshot literature.

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C. J. Umrigar, Tyler A. Anderson. 2025-02-05. Energy needed to propel a tiny spacecraft to Proxima Centauri,and, an unstated assumption in Einstein's 1905 paper. https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.04331

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