https://hackerpaper.kaipfister.de/p/1805.01306/Collected HN comments and submissions linking this paper.enMon, 02 Nov 2026 11:16:22 GMThttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33183859urn:hackerpapers:mention:1805.01306:33183859Wed, 12 Oct 2022 21:42:09 GMT<p>From https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/2005/2005.08940.pdf &gt; The sailcraft transmits 100 Watts, deriving its power from a 700-Watt hydrogen beam that is normally incident on the sailcraft when it faces Earth. This hydrogen beam is simply a manifestation of the interstellar medium, incident on the sailcraft at 0.2 c. From https://arxiv.org/pdf/1805.01306.pdf &gt; One way to tap the sailcraft’s kinetic energy could be via the interstellar medium: The Local Interstellar Cloud is primarily composed of 0.3 atoms/cm3 of partially ionized hydrogen. From the sailcraft’s perspective traveling at cruise…</p><p><a href="https://hackerpaper.kaipfister.de/p/1805.01306/">Paper and discussion history</a>. A mention is not an endorsement.</p>astro-ph.IMhttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23133476urn:hackerpapers:mention:1805.01306:23133476Sun, 10 May 2020 15:41:59 GMT<p>If SpaceX can afford to put a car into orbit around the sun as a publicity stunt during rocket testing, I wonder how much this would cost. Edit: Probably around $100MM: https://www.spacex.com/about/capabilities for the launch, several $100MMs for the (space based?) accelerator and spacecraft, and then a few more for operations and research. Yeah, $1 billion as described in the article seems like a good estimate: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1805.01306.pdf Since knowledge arising from this experiment will probably only be useful as a common good, there aren&#x27;t really incentives for this to happen…</p><p><a href="https://hackerpaper.kaipfister.de/p/1805.01306/">Paper and discussion history</a>. A mention is not an endorsement.</p>astro-ph.IM