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First Controllable Solar Sail Launched Today
Posted by
timothy
on Tue Jun 21, 2005 07:16 PM
from the now-for-obedience-school dept.
from the now-for-obedience-school dept.
clustermonkey writes "The first controllable solar sail was launched earlier today from a Russian sub in the Barents Sea. The Planetary Society, founded by Carl Sagan, organized the project and were funded by Cosmos Studios, founded by Sagan's widow. There have been 2 other solar sail deployments by others, but this will be the first to attempt controlled flight. The sail is scheduled to deploy June 25." All may not be well, though: Snot Locker writes "The Cosmos 1 Weblog is showing that, although the launch initially looked successful, they can't seem to find it or hear it. Bummer. Previous Slashdot coverage on the Cosmos 1 Solar Sail mission can be found here."
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Finnish Electric Solar Sail Nears Implementation 66 comments
eldavojohn writes "A recent meeting held by the Finnish Meteorological Institute has resulted in plans to build an electric solar sail that will circle the Earth, gaining speed to test its acceleration. The purpose? 'A flight out of the solar system to measure the gas, dust, plasma and magnetic field in the undisturbed interstellar space would perhaps be the "flagship" thing to do,' said Pekka Janhunen, a researcher developing the sail at the FMI. The details and papers of this project (over two years in the making) are also available. I certainly hope it will show more success than the launch of the similar U.S.-Russian venture and its subsequent complete failure."
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"Bummer" (Score:5, Funny)
It's a bit more than a "Bummer":
Engineer #1: Yessiree, that solar sail is up there! This calls for a celebration!
Engineer #2: Um. Where is it?
Engineer #1: [points] Up there!
Engineer #2: Where up there?
Engineer #1: Way, way up there.
Engineer #2: You have no idea, right?
Engineer #1: [weak laugh] Nah.
Engineer #1: [shrug] Bummer.
Deja Vu (Score:5, Informative)
uh oh (Score:5, Funny)
Always the risk. (Score:5, Interesting)
The trouble is, every time you take what is essentially a robotically controlled device and send it into space giving it a good *shake* in the process (rockets really do vibrate a lot), you run the risk of breaking something.
Of course, you combat this by duplicating as much of the systems as you can but when your experiment requires a very low mass (ala solar sail controller) I wonder how much redundancy is possible?
Still. I hope Cosmos sparks back to life
Re:Always the risk. (Score:5, Informative)
* The signal didn't dissapear suddenly when the kick fired - it became irregular, and then dissapeared after three minutes.
* The signal was received clearly after launch for six minutes.
* There were irregular readings coming from the Volna; however, clearly the craft detached, or there wouldn't have been six minutes of signal.
* STRATCOM can't find the satellite. That doesn't mean that it's gone - only that it's not where they told them to look. Likewise, the lack of ground station reception could mean the same thing. It could be in the wrong orbit, which is actually a more common phenominon than a total craft loss.
* The chance of signal acquisition at the early two stations was only considered marginal to begin with. The big test will be at the permanent stations in Paska Ves, and especially the Tarusa and Bear lakes.
* Not receiving a signal from a spacecraft during the first few orbits is "not extremely unusual". Nonetheless, they do sound a bit nervous.
Parent
Presumably... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Presumably... (Score:5, Funny)
In other words, what you're trying to say is that somewhere downrange of post-Soviet Russia, solar sail will eventually find yo*CRUNCH*
NO CARRIER
Parent
Re:Presumably... (Score:5, Funny)
You see, the Russians never launched Cosmos 1, they realized that these guys would be a bunch of suckers so what they did, is they got them to pay for the launch, and then launched their own new spy satellite In the same orbit that Cosmos 1 was supposed to be in. And now they are going to tell them "tough luck, you must have out bad communications equipment on her or something". So the Americans pay the money, and the Russians get to launch their spy satellite.
Next Week on Conspiracy Theory 101
Sony and Microsoft are really in bed against Nintendo!
Parent
Bummer indeed (Score:5, Interesting)
ad astra!
Re:Bummer indeed (Score:3, Interesting)
Swords into Plowshares (Score:3, Interesting)
Just like some other craft we happen to know [startrek.com].
Of course they can't find it... (Score:4, Funny)
Not looking good! (Score:3, Informative)
Spaceflight now has the scoop (Score:5, Informative)
It's on mars.. (Score:5, Funny)
Of course they can't hear it! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Interstellar (Score:5, Interesting)
I think the theory is you get up to a pretty high speed by the time you leave the solar system, then coast. You'd better be sure you can stop at the right place, though.
I'm sure people have figured that out. Obviously you run the process in reverse to slow down when you approach the star. But what if you can only shed half your speed by the time you get to the planet? (that is, if the other star is smaller, the planet further out, etc)?
Anyone?
Parent
Re:Interstellar (Score:5, Informative)
An interstellar voyage might be possible, but would probably require a laser or microwave system aimed at the sail for much of its journey (a brief "push" like that is also being tested as part of this experiment).
Parent
Re:Interstellar - no solar wind or enough protons? (Score:3, Informative)
So when you're craft is going at 200,000 mph, every little hydrogen atom is going to blow a chunk out of your craft and slow down your velocity. So it would make sense to reduce the surface area of your craft, in the direction that it is travelling.
Re:Did they program it in miles again? (Score:3, Insightful)
what an ass.
also, it's Reagans fault.
Re:Did they program it in miles again? (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Re:Did they program it in miles again? (Score:3, Funny)
You sure do.
Re:Possible bad news: (Score:3, Funny)
Engineer #2: Miles
Engineer #1: What do you mean "miles"?
pwnd!
Endevour [sic] (Score:3, Informative)
You forgot one step:
Lastly, the solar wind will shred the sails of this craft, as we have not yet developed a material light enough for solar sails, yet robust enough to withstand long-term exposure to the solar wind.
Still perfectly valid for proof-of-concept, but a good long way from practical application.
Re:How does it stop? (Score:5, Funny)
Parent