another alternative to building stations.

On 5/24/06, Robert wrote:
(...)
> i guess i did not make it clear, I'm talking about neos which by
> definition are inside the orbit of mars at the apogee. earth is about
> 8 light minutes from the sun and mars would be about 16. since venis
> is about 4, that means the farthest the laser would be from the sail,
> would be maybe 20 minutes top. since it would be only decelerating or
> accelerating in a staight (orbital) line (any manuver would require
> that the beam be turn away, before the sail could be changed) the
> potition of the sail would be easy to calcuate the proper angle to
> send the beam. the great majority of time the laser satalite would be
> on the same side and the asteroid would be inside or near earths
> orbit. that would mean a seperation of maybe 5 to 10 light minutes.
(...)