{"id":139717,"date":"2022-05-22T19:22:20","date_gmt":"2022-05-23T00:22:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2022\/05\/tiny-microdrones-propelled-by-light-driven-nanomotors"},"modified":"2022-05-22T19:22:20","modified_gmt":"2022-05-23T00:22:20","slug":"tiny-microdrones-propelled-by-light-driven-nanomotors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2022\/05\/tiny-microdrones-propelled-by-light-driven-nanomotors","title":{"rendered":"Tiny Microdrones Propelled by Light-Driven Nanomotors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/tiny-microdrones-propelled-by-light-driven-nanomotors2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>A hand-held laser pointer produces no noticeable recoil forces when it is \u201cfired\u201d \u2014 even though it emits a directed stream of light particles. The reason for this is simply because of its relatively enormous mass compared to the very tiny recoil impulses that the light particles cause when they leave the laser pointer.<\/p>\n<p>However, it has long been clear that optical recoil forces can indeed have a significant effect on correspondingly small particles. For example, the tails of comets point away from the Sun partly due to light pressure. The <a href=https:\/\/scitechdaily.com\/tiny-space-probes-using-laser-sails-could-speed-to-outer-planets-and-beyond\/>propulsion of light spacecraft<\/a> via <a href=https:\/\/scitechdaily.com\/lightsail-2-has-been-flying-in-space-for-30-months-paving-the-way-for-future-solar-sail-missions\/>light sails<\/a> has also been discussed repeatedly, most recently in connection with the <a href=https:\/\/scitechdaily.com\/a-relativistic-lightsail-that-wont-tear-or-melt-on-an-interstellar-voyage\/>\u201cstarshot\u201d project<\/a>, in which a fleet of miniature spacecraft is to be sent to Alpha Centauri.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A hand-held laser pointer produces no noticeable recoil forces when it is \u201cfired\u201d \u2014 even though it emits a directed stream of light particles. The reason for this is simply because of its relatively enormous mass compared to the very tiny recoil impulses that the light particles cause when they leave the laser pointer. However, [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":599,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-139717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-particle-physics","category-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/599"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139717\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}