““That said, if we could build giant megalasers, there might be an additional bonus for rocketry. One group at Brown recently suggested that a powerful laser could be used to reduce air drag by as much as 95%. Imagine this: As you are being laser-blasted up, a second laser is being fired into the region ahead of you. This makes the air ahead of you less dense, so there’s less to bump into. Now your astronauts might get a little antsy, since they’re flying at well past the speed of sound with ultrapowerful lasers before and behind them, but you could solve this problem by just calling them cowards.””
![“The whole procedure [of shooting rockets into space] . .…” quote by Richard van der Riet Woolley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/fcd/richard-van-der-riet-woolley-1_accomplished_the-whole-procedure-of-shooting-rockets_271706.jpg)
