Re: [TML] Fueling from an icy asteroid or rock? Jeffrey Schwartz 09 Dec 2014 17:43 UTC
On Tue, Dec 9, 2014 at 12:04 PM, <xxxxxx@shadowgard.com> wrote: > On 9 Dec 2014 at 9:31, Jeffrey Schwartz wrote: > >> I'm kinda wondering if using the _ship's_ lasers for this would be the >> easy solution to the problem. >> >> Stand off by 10km, and bathe the ice-ball in 150Mj of laser mojo until >> it is vapor. >> Then move in and skim the vapor. > > Weapons grade lasers don't melt. They dump so much energy into a > spot, so fast, that the material *explodes* into plasma. > > Even if you dialed them way down, the vapor would disperse into the > vacuum far too fast for you to skim it. > > And at high enough energies to get the "blast" effect, many if not > most of the chunks will be departing at high speed. > That makes sense... ..but... I can see the pulse hitting the big ball of ice, and there being a Bang! as it heats a small area to plasma, which then explodes and makes a crater. But wouldn't the crater walls be pretty hot? And they'd steam off?