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Light Propulsion To reach the space today, space shuttles have to carry tons of fuel. This technique of propulsion would help us develop spacecrafts that can be propelled using a beam of light. The craft uses practically no fuel. Let us see the basic principle on which light propulsion works: It uses high flux of photons to give the needed acceleration to the spacecraft. Since light (photons) apply pressure to the surface of the spacecraft {due to generation of thrust), the stream of photons can be used for propulsion. The launch cost will be greatly reduced, as the spacecraft will not have to carry tons of fuel and thus they would become lighter. These spacecrafts produce zero pollution. However the disadvantage of light propulsion is that it requires huge amount of energy to generate even small amount of thrust. Light propulsion is classified into: Let us see light propulsion in detail and study the methods of thrust generation in each case.
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