New winds for interstellar probes.

“Light sails can propel spacecraft using the energy of the Sun. Credit: NASA/Aero Animation/Ben Schweighart” (ScitechDaily, Humanity May Soon Have the Technology To Reach Other Star Systems)

A large Mylar structure with a metal shell. It can. Make it possible. To create a large radar satellite. That satellite can look like a spinning version of the Solar sail. The system uses Doppler radar. For making highly accurate radar images. The same technology is used in photonic solar sails. It can be used to create orbital mirrors. That turn laser beams in the right direction. 

These kinds of mirrors can be used for systems that turn high-energy laser beams. Into systems. That can destroy satellites and high-flying aircraft. Megawatt-class laser beams can be created by using multiple smaller lasers. Those lasers can be ground-based. Or. Orbital lasers. Large-sized Mylar structures. They can help to keep the thermal level lower. But then, to interplanetary and interstellar solar sails. 

Solar sails are always similar systems. The interplanetary solar sail uses solar wind to push it forward. The interstellar version uses photons. The interplanetary solar sail can also carry massive radar in its structure. That radar can be used to research the internal structures of the planets. 

There is a possibility. To use those solar sails for interstellar travel. The problem is the weak thrust of photons. In an ideal mission, a solar sail uses the plasma flow to travel out of the solar system. And then a massive laser starts to push it into interstellar space. 

Maybe humans will get the technology to travel to other solar systems sooner than we thought. The first probe that we will send to other solar systems. It could be the photonic solar sail. The photonic solar sail can ride on a photonic beam. 

First, that solar sail could use the solar wind. Plasma that the Sun sends into space for acceleration. When the distance to the Sun increases, the system. It can transform to use a photonic drive. The thrust that photons give is so low. The solar sail must use some other systems. To accelerate to a speed high enough for the sail. It can travel out of the solar system. 

“An artist's conception of the Project Orion. "Basic” spacecraft, powered by nuclear pulse propulsion.” (Wikipedia, Nuclear pulse propulsion)

One promising first-stage acceleration system is called Nuclear pulse propulsion. 

In the 1960s, the U.S. Air Force proposed Project Orion. The idea was to use a series of low-yield nuclear explosions. To send a rocket to other planets. Those nuclear bombs were planned to detonate behind the spacecraft. That thrust could carry the Orion spacecraft to Mars and farther. Then some researchers. 

They had an idea. To create a combination of Orion and a solar sail. The system uses nuclear bombs to accelerate the solar sail. The system can use other rockets to transport those bombs into the right positions. When. The solar sail travels past those nukes. The system detonates the explosives. 

The system is called the Medusa drive. Medusa system. It can be used to transport the laser that the interstellar solar sail needs to the edge of the solar system. There, the laser starts to accelerate. This interstellar. Solar sail. In every case, that solar sail. 

The system uses hybrid technology. First, it uses the solar wind. Then it can use nuclear detonations. And finally, the laser beam pushes it forward. The small nuclear detonations can also push the solar sail. Into the journey. To the Alpha Centauri system. Another way is to use electron-positron annihilation. This annihilation can create the particle flow that pushes the solar sail forward. 

https://scitechdaily.com/humanity-may-soon-have-the-technology-to-reach-other-star-systems/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_pulse_propulsion

https://www.reddit.com/r/Boooks1234/s/1z6sflXoLU

Great filter: Are all civilizations already dead?

The Great filter is the point at which civilization must pass certain tests. That. It can travel to stars. And if the civilization can reach stars. The next step in that model. It is the conflict between colonies and the members of civilization that stayed home. There is a possibility that if some civilization can send colonists to other stars. 

Those colonists who reached their objective never saw the planet. There is their origin. That kind of thing can cause conflict. If. A civilization conquers space and other planets. Sooner or later, there form individuals. Who spend their entire life in a space station. Those individuals might have so weak bones and muscles. 

That they cannot land on any planet. Sooner or later. That causes problems with “regular members of the civilization”. Those conflicts. When both actors think that they are just paying for others’ comfort. 

That can cause war. The planets will face massive meteor bombardment. Those things can be large asteroids that are driven from their trajectory by pushing them with rockets. Those systems can be assembled on the asteroid’s shell. And then the nuclear rocket pushes the asteroid. 

To trajectory. That takes it into impact course with planets. That kind of war can destroy the entire civilization. The biggest problems with Kardashev-scale civilizations would be internal problems. And even moving to stars will not solve those problems. If. Civilization sends fetuses to the other solar system. Those individuals might feel hate because nobody asked them. Do they want to move to another solar system? 

But then we can think for ourselves. We are civilization as those hypothetical civilizations are. In the same way, we face that great filter. Even. If we can step to Kardashev scale III. We can reach the other filter. The same problems repeat in every step. Colonization of other planets. And solar systems. They can solve problems to get raw materials. And overpopulation. But that forms the ultimate need for raw materials. Next scale forms next scale needs. So the hierarchy of needs forms the great filter. 

Kardashev scale: 

“A Type I civilization (planetary) can access all the energy available on its planet and store it for consumption.

A Type II civilization (stellar) can directly consume a star's energy. Such as through the use of a Dyson sphere.

A Type III civilization (galactic) can capture all the energy emitted by its galaxy. And every object within it, such as every star and black hole. etc.

No civilization can live forever. 

If. A species doesn’t get genetic refreshments from somewhere. The genetic disorders accumulate. 

Because of degeneration. The genetic variability. It can be huge. But that is limited. There is a limited number of orders in base pairs. And sooner or later. Genetic disorders. They start to accumulate in entire species. Start to degenerate. This means that evolution continues all the time. And this means that people. Who live on this planet after 100000 years might even look a little bit different. Than, we look today. 

When civilization travels to stars. And. Lands on other planets, there is a possibility. They face another species. Those species might not be intelligent. They might be primitive bacteria or viruses. 

As. Those hypothetical dead civilizations. We think that we are special. But we always follow the same route as other civilizations. The test. That we can handle our overpopulation, waste, and use of raw materials. 

Resources are limited. And sooner or later. Star uses its entire fuel. It turns into a white dwarf or something denser like a neutron star or a black hole. The civilization can wait until that point to leave its home. They might not even reach Karachev scale III. That means interstellar travel capacity. The civilization can leave its solar system using technology. That is created for interplanetary travel. When their technology is not what it should be. 

That can cause a need.  Enter other solar systems without asking permission. If the generation ship with thousands or maybe millions of travelers arrives in the other solar system that is already occupied. That causes conflict. In some visions, those civilizations use ships that were developed for interplanetary travel. And there are freezers for the fetuses. That kind of system might require repairs. And that can cause Star Wars. This kind of war between civilizations can cause. 

The end of both races. Or maybe there is a rebellion in those generation ships. But then we can think about things like the Kardashev scale III. That means interstellar travel. We should determine that ability better. Interstellar travel doesn’t mean that those crews ever see their homes. The Kardashev scale will never save the civilization. It gives temporary time for peace. But the Kardashev scale brings the same problems to the forefront of civilization. 

That. Those creatures. Or we try to solve. Overpopulation and lack of raw materials and energy. They were the reason for the first colonists. The overpopulation was solved in history. By. Making a colony. The same way. The Kardashev scale civilization can create its technology fr dumping overpopulation. Into other planets. And then to other solar systems. That thing doesn’t solve problems. 

That brings the same problems to the forefront for leaders. But their scale is enormous. In history, most civilizations have been destroyed. Because. Of their internal conflicts. The reason for those conflicts was often that somebody thought. That someone got too much. And that caused civil war and destruction. 

This kind of scenario causes interesting thoughts. When a civilization falls, the technology that it created remains. And that means when living creatures fall. The AI rises. When. A highly advanced civilization goes to war. That civilization might use AI-controlled technology for defense and offense. And developing and manufacturing equipment. This AI can continue its work. Even. If those creatures are gone. That kind of AI can turn dangerous. The robot army was created to protect civilization. Sees that it failed. Those robots might follow orders to make the counterstrike. And in that case, innocents can pay the ultimate price. This means that zombie AI can attack other civilizations. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Filter

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kardashev_scale

The satellite network could replace AWACS aircraft.

The satellite network could replace AWACS aircraft. But there are huge technical problems. The needed number of satellites is the same class as the Starlink satellite system. Those satellites could use radars and optical target recognition systems. To see things like hypersonic missiles and stealth bombers. The next-generation threat in the military. It is the supersonic. Or even a hypersonic stealth bomber. 

If. It uses hypersonic stealth cruise missiles. That system. It can make extremely deadly attacks in extremely short warning time. There is a need. For. Some ability to respond to that kind of threat. If that combination exists. 

There is no time. To send AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System). To search that aircraft. AWACS sees low-flying targets. But hypersonic missiles will travel far higher than AWACS. Russian Kinzhal missiles are very primitive. And they are hard to aim at targets, but there are more advanced systems. And those systems are far more deadly than Kinzhal. One thing that can cause grey hair in the future. It is the possible air-launched variant of the BrahMos or Zircon missile. The older Tu-95 Bear H and the Tu-22M can act as air-launch platforms for 3M22 Zircon missiles. The big difference between Zircon and Kinzhal is that.

The air-launched variant of the Zircon missile. It doesn’t need as fast a launch platform as Kinzhal. The Kinzhal can be launched only from MiG-31 if the launcher wants the missile to reach hypersonic speed. Zircon can reach hypersonic speed from any platform. 

“A Kh-47M2 Kinzhal being carried by a Mikoyan MiG-31K interceptor” (Wikipedia, Kh-47M2 Kinzhal)

Pentagon has plans to create a satellite-based surveillance system. This replaces aircraft-based radar systems. The main problem with airborne radar systems is this. Those systems are vulnerable to anti-radiation missiles. AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System) platform. It must be protected against missiles. That protective system. It could be a laser weapon. 

That destroys the incoming missiles. But when the AWACS platform scans the area. It's visible to AA systems. And they can use lasers or high-power microwaves. There are two ways to improve those systems’ survivability. The first is to install the radar system somewhere other than in manned aircraft. 

Tu-22M could launch hypersonic missiles and ASAT weapons. 

Into large-sized drones like Poseidon. The Poseidon drone could carry radar and then communicate with manned platforms or with the Pentagon using satellite control. Drone-based system. It separates radar and other active components into another body. And communicate with manned aircraft. The second way is to replace those airborne systems with satellites. 

Satellite network. That includes thousands of satellites. It could see the target at any point on Earth. And things like hypersonic missiles and other technologies. Including air-launched hypersonic and stealth missiles, they require very fast reactions. The biggest problem with AWACS is that they cannot cover the entire Earth. There is no time to predict the point. There. The hypersonic weapon will be launched. Another thing. That makes hypersonic weapons complicated. Is that they travel at altitudes that normal aircraft cannot reach. The satellite network could solve the problem for fast location. 

B-1 carries a hypersonic ARRW missile. The B-21 Raider is also planned to act as a hypersonic missile launch platform.  B-2 could also probably carry and launch AGM-181 ARRW

Of the launching point. But the problem is that there must be a very large number of AI-controlled satellites. Those satellites will deliver an alarm signal. This means the satellite swarm operates independently when it locates hypersonic missiles. 

Sending. A warning signal to the air defense. Key elements in successful air defense are accuracy and speed. The missile travels at least one kilometer per second. That means. Defense has. 

A short time to aim missiles at that target. If. The missile has a speed over Mach 6. There is a very short time to reload the missiles. 

The incoming hypersonic glider has a plasma layer around it. This plasma causes so-called radio blackout when the spacecraft arrives on the ground. The same plasma prevents the hypersonic system from seeing its target. By. Using radar. This makes it possible to see the target using radar. The combination of inertial and AI-powered optical target recognition systems. The fact is that if HGV uses a nuclear warhead. It doesn’t require that accuracy.

Above: Russian Zircon missiles and their air-launched variants. They could be next-generation systems. 

In those cases. Their nuclear attack system could be the miniature shuttle that waits in orbit. Then that orbiter decreases its altitude. And activates ramjets or scramjets. 

That high-flying hypersonic system. It can attack from an unexpected angle. This means that the satellite network. It could be the only thing that can detect that missile. But there is one problem. Those warning and control satellites orbit in predictable trajectories. They are also targets for killer satellites. A high-orbiting satellite killer could shoot them from a high-altitude trajectory. That killer satellite can use soft ammunition or miniature robots that push those warning satellites into the atmosphere. This means that a satellite swarm requires higher or longer-distance systems. That follows them. 

A satellite swarm can point its cameras or radars into any point on Earth. They are also tools for real-time intelligence. This makes those systems vital. And that makes them targets for an orbital or a ground-based ASAT platform. This means that those satellites require protection. And if that protection is the anti-missile system. That destroys incoming missiles. Those systems. They can also be used against other satellites. 

https://interestingengineering.com/military/b1b-bomber-hypersonic-missile-system

https://rocketlabcorp.com/updates/rocket-lab-announces-flatellite-a-new-satellite-designed-for-mass-manufacture-and-tailored-for-large-constellations/

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/defence/international/can-ukraine-stop-russias-zircon-missile-all-about-moscows-mach-9-hypersonic-weapon/articleshow/132276845.cms

https://www.twz.com/space/pentagons-plans-to-track-aircraft-from-orbit-accelerated-with-new-4b-spacex-deal

https://www.wionews.com/photos/how-far-india-and-russia-have-reached-in-building-brahmos-ii-1764593647047

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3M22_Zircon

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BrahMos

https://www.reddit.com/r/Boooks1234/s/26wG2aR6rE

New photonic time crystals offer a new way to manipulate light.

"A THz electromagnetic wave induces strong, fast temporal modulations that realize a photonic time crystal: a crystal lattice in time for photon. Credit: B. Schröder/HZDR" (ScitechDaily, World’s First Photonic Time Crystal Can Reshape Light in Trillionths of a Second)

New photonic time crystals offer a new way to manipulate light in terahertz frequency. 

“An international research team has created the first experimentally demonstrated all-optical photonic time crystal (PTC), a material whose optical behavior can be altered strongly and repeatedly over extremely short periods of time.” (ScitechDaily, World’s First Photonic Time Crystal Can Reshape Light in Trillionths of a Second)

 Photonic time crystals. They are made of plasmonic material. “The structure contains micrometer-scale, crenelated gold patterns positioned above an insulating layer and a semiconductor made from a mixture of indium and antimony. The gold structures form small cavities that confine photons between the metal and semiconductor layers.”(ScitechDaily, World’s First Photonic Time Crystal Can Reshape Light in Trillionths of a Second)

“When the surface of the semiconductor is excited, it produces “surface plasmons,” in which electrons move together as a collective wave. This coordinated motion allows the structure to capture light and maintain its oscillations.” 

The ability to manipulate light plays a vital role in photonic computing. The new photonic time crystal manipulates light in trillionths of a second. That makes it possible to create photonic switches that can cut and manipulate photonic signals in photonic microchips. Maybe the photonic computer. It can use images or photonic forms to transmit zeros and ones. Rings can mean one. And lines can mean zero. Those forms are arbitrary. And the limit is in the forms that a photonic crystal can form. 

“Many modern technologies depend on controlling how light behaves when it passes through or interacts with a material. Optical fibers guide information across communication networks, lasers provide precise light sources, and optical sensors are widely used in chemistry and biology.”(ScitechDaily, World’s First Photonic Time Crystal Can Reshape Light in Trillionths of a Second)

“The terahertz range operates at frequencies around 1,000 times faster than those commonly used by electronic components. Interest in this region is growing because it could offer new ways to observe, analyze, and manipulate matter.” (ScitechDaily, World’s First Photonic Time Crystal Can Reshape Light in Trillionths of a Second)

Researchers say. That. The terahertz range. Is a border between electronics and photonics. This means that terahertz (THz) systems. They can act as a gate between electronics and photonics. 

x“Conventional photonic crystals are nanostructured materials arranged in a repeating optical pattern (like a lattice) that influences how photons move. By. Controlling the refractive index and geometry of materials. Scientists can block, redirect, or strengthen particular wavelengths of light. In this way, photonic crystals perform a role for the photons. That is similar to the way semiconductors control electrons.”(ScitechDaily, World’s First Photonic Time Crystal Can Reshape Light in Trillionths of a Second)

“Earlier experiments by the same research team showed that changing temperature or applying magnetic fields could modify how photonic crystals trapped light. However, those changes remained fixed once they were applied.”(ScitechDaily, World’s First Photonic Time Crystal Can Reshape Light in Trillionths of a Second)

“The new experiment moves beyond that limitation by introducing a photonic time crystal. In this system, the material’s optical properties (e.g., reflectivity, resonance frequency) change dynamically over picosecond timescales, which are comparable to the oscillation period of the light itself.” (ScitechDaily, World’s First Photonic Time Crystal Can Reshape Light in Trillionths of a Second)

Researchers say that those new photonic time crystals. They offer a new dimension for light control. 

That opens new abilities in the radar and communications areas. Terahertz radiation is also a promising tool in anti-stealth technologies. Researchers are searching for something that could replace or support radio-wave-based radars. And one of those promising tools is terahertz lidars. Those systems. They can make it possible to detect at least some stealth fighters. And coherent terahertz radiation. It is a tool. That can make it possible to create more secure communication. 

Than regular radio wave-based communication. Those systems. They can also scan things like weapons under clothes. The terahertz-based systems. They require the ability to manipulate that radiation. And we must realize. That there are weaknesses and vulnerabilities in all types of systems. But coherent terahertz radiation has many promising abilities. 

First demonstrations may not seem very impressive. But those systems are pathfinders for more effective and useful systems. 

https://scitechdaily.com/worlds-first-photonic-time-crystal-can-reshape-light-in-trillionths-of-a-second/a