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Space Science

Solar Sail to be Launched This Year 161

Posted by timothy from the not-to-the-moon-alice dept.
mad_goldfish writes: "Spaceflight Now is reporting that the Russians are preparing a Solar Sail for launch sometime after September aboard a Cosmos 1 rocket. Apparently most of the components have now been tested and they are getting ready to integrate all the flight components. Just the camera, S-band radio and main computer are yet to be completed."
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Solar Sail to be Launched This Year More

Solar Sail to be Launched This Year

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  • cool (Score:3, Funny)

    by the_2nd_coming ( 444906 ) on Monday April 29, 2002 @08:53AM (#3428540) Homepage
    so can we sail from here to Cardasia using one of those Sails? I mean the Bejorins did it.

  • More info (Score:3, Informative)

    by edwilli ( 197728 ) on Monday April 29, 2002 @08:57AM (#3428564) Homepage
    This site [caltech.edu] is a great one for more info about solar sails. Exciting technology, I remember watching Cosmos and Segan talking about it.

  • I wish them luck (Score:5, Insightful)

    by jhines0042 ( 184217 ) on Monday April 29, 2002 @08:59AM (#3428569) Journal
    You know what, I first heard of this and I thought, "Geez, America is getting behind in the Space Race", but you know what? I wish them the best of luck because ultimately the quest for Space Knowledge with benefit the whole planet.

    Good Luck!

    • Re:I wish them luck (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Well, it's not so much "them." The Plenetary Society [planetary.org] is the driving force behind the project, and they're a U.S.-based non-profit. The cool thing about this project is that it's non-governmental. The Russians are launching it bacuase they're the ones with the cheap launch vehicles.

      • Yet it seems to be that these days the Russians have all the vision and none of the money. Meanwhile you guys, (the US) have all the money and no vision.

        How about spending a few hundred million dollars on building a orbital solar power station, that should repay its buildning costs 10 times over? Americans would laugh at such a proposal, meanwhile ther're a dozen detailed enginering examples in Russia.

        How about bringing back one single nickle/iron asteriod from the belt (or closer!). It will cost a few billion dollars, but the revenues are potentially 1000 times that. Again, the Russians will probably have everything worked out down to the type of bolts to use...

    • ..because it's the only thing that really gets us capitalist pigs off of our ass and into gear.

      history of space race [si.edu]

      (well, it's not going to start another space race, but it sure would be nice if it regenerated a little interest in the general public.)
      • "Assembly of Japanese bicycle require great peace of mind."

        That is my favorite quote from that book.

        The only thing that gets capitalist pigs of their asses is money. Show them how it will make money, and they'll dance. Show them how its costing them money, and it will make them angry.

        Money doesn't make the world go round, just America :)

        Sakhmet.

      • but it sure would be nice if it regenerated a little interest in the general public.

        I dont think the general public is particularily interesting or worth generating interest in myself.

    • Re:I wish them luck (Score:4, Insightful)

      by ch-chuck ( 9622 ) on Monday April 29, 2002 @10:39AM (#3428982) Homepage
      Well, the US started out behind, and IS losing Edge. Was thinking how to phrase it, but the Russians appear more willing to take risks (you know, in science, EXPERIMENT and risk failure but learn something anyway?) - w/ NASA's ever shrinking budget and risk aversion due to sensitivity to public criticism it sometimes seems like they can't try out anything (like space tourism) w/o knowing before hand that it's going to be successful. The typical US attitude to almost anything these days is how the lawyers are going to react and who is liable for damages; slowly turning into paralysis thru analysis, unable to accomplish anything.

      • OK, what have the Russian's done lately other than this?

        The US has tested ion drives, beach balls on Mars, landed on asteroids and... uh, ok.. so maybe we don't have much more on the plate, but those are substantial achievements and risky.

        The real thing is to see what is being planned right now. I don't know... and I am too lazy to check.

    • America has ALWAYS been behind in the space race, who had the first man in space, first animal in space?, first spacecraft to the moon, first satellite, the only thing the americans did first, was walk on the moon.
    • I remember a science fiction story about an annual race in which eight vessels raced from the earth to the moon using a solar sail - unfortunately the race had to be abandonded because of a solar flare (these were manned spacecraft) - but it was a great story! It's good to see science catching up with the sci-fi writers!
  • This is the cheapest, simplest form of probe there is. It rides a fundamental law of quantum mechanics that reflected photons transmit more force than absorbed ones. Unfortunately, it will take quite awhile to go anywhere significant.
    • Yeah, but you've got to watch out for those solar sailors, they're even more rowdy that their Terra-bound collagues, and like to probe places rarely (hopefully) visited
    • Actually this is not at law of quantum mechanics. Its simply the old rule of conservation of momentum. This is dating back to Newton, though he did of cause not know about photons.
      If the photon is reflected the sail must gain twice the original photon momentum in order to keep global momentum conserved.
      • There is a quasi-quantum idea to it though. Light isn't a part of classical mechanics technically.

        Quantum mechanics encapsulates the old mechanics and the mechanics of sub-atomic particles. At any rate, I don't think this would have been thought of without quantum mechanics but then again, I was a little puzzled too when he said it was quantum mechanics (remember, classical mechanics is a special case of quantum mechanics).
        • The current description of light was made by Einstein in 1905 (he recieved the Nobel prize for this in 1921). Even though this work is an important part of the early quantum theory, it can not be said to be part of the later qauntum mechanics which was born in the 1920's.
          At any rate Einsteins work is 15 years older than quantum mechanics, so in that respect it was for sure thought of without quantum mechanics.

    • Re:Great News!! (Score:2, Informative)

      by spike hay ( 534165 )
      Unfortunately, it will take quite awhile to go anywhere significant.

      Actually these will travel many times faster that current probes.
    • So here's a question for you - if a solar sail is reflective on one side, and absorptive (black) on the other, shouldn't it be possible to sail on ambient light (including starlight, slowly) alone? If I'm not mistaken that's the same principle as those little whirling light bulb toys.

      Does the russian design exploit this property?
      • Those little whirling toys, or "radiometers", as scientists Edmundi refer to them, do not operate on photon pressure.

        They operate on the black side of the vanes getting warmer than the white sides, thus the molecules on that side are vibrating faster (temperature being the average molecular motion of a substance) and thus kick any billiard-balling air molecules away faster than the light side does. This transfers more momentum to the black side than the white side, thus it starts to spin.

        The purpose of the bulb is not to preserve a partial (or complete!) vacuum, or a special gas, but to keep ambient currents away from the device. It's only a paper cap on the bottom.

  • So when the price of storing, shipping, and using standard fuels becomes prohibitive, 'solar power' is suddenly an option. Granted, using light for propulsion and converting it to electricity are different processes, but the lesson is a good one. The technology is there; all that's needed is the desire for a cheaper, renewable energy source... and a tax of about $20 a gallon on gas should get the ball rolling.

    And before you ask: public transportation and my own two feet.

    • "And before you ask: public transportation and my own two feet."

      C'mon, be realistic. How far are you really gonna get burning those?

    • Great...then I can live in a one-issue fundamentalist's paradise! If it's good enough for you, it's good enough for all of society! Thanks for removing the need to vote, I was tired of getting all that mail.

  • The project website (Score:4, Informative)

    by Gibbys Box of Trix ( 176568 ) on Monday April 29, 2002 @09:03AM (#3428590) Journal
    Here [planetary.org] is the co-organisers (Planetary Society) website (deeplinked to avoid crappy flash front page). It's done in conjunction with Cosmos Studios [carlsagan.com].

    There is much more in-depth information and some pictures on both of those sites.

  • more info (Score:4, Informative)

    by Alien54 ( 180860 ) on Monday April 29, 2002 @09:04AM (#3428598) Journal
    You can buy a plastic model of the space craft here [spacecraftkits.com].

    There is more info on the Spacecraft here [planetary.org] on the Planetary Society Website.

  • Wont work (Score:3, Funny)

    by qurk ( 87195 ) on Monday April 29, 2002 @09:06AM (#3428608)
    Talk about Crazy Eddie.
    • I dunno, considering this *is* the Russians we're talking about, I was thinking more of "Crazy Ivan".
    • Talk about Crazy Eddie.

      Show of hands: how many people actually got this joke? I can think of four: myself, the guy who posted it, and the two guys who moderated it up.

      The obscure ones are the best ones.
      • Talk about Crazy Eddie.

        Show of hands: how many people actually got this joke?

        Who didn't? I suppose you could say it has a double meaning, since it could be refering to THE Crazy Eddie probe, or it could be just a general purpose crazy eddie idea. Now where did my fyunch go?

  • why? (Score:2)

    by garver ( 30881 )

    I don't mean to be obnoxious, but what are their goals here? I read the article and all it talked about was the mission, not about what the Russians hope to gain out of solar sail. I know in general what solar sails in general would theoretically enable, but what specifically are the Russians preparing?

    • Re:why? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Zathrus ( 232140 )
      To quote the website [planetary.org]:


      WHY: To conduct the first solar sail flight and demonstrate the technique for traveling between planets -- and someday, to the stars.

      The purpose is proof-of-concept. Which is a fairly standard thing to do. NASA has done some proof-of-concept on space tethers in the past few years, but I'm not aware of any solar sail testing (but I also don't read the various space websites religiously).

      Note that this seems like a really small sail (30m diameter) for such a heavy payload (40 kg). But it is, after all, just proof-of-concept.

      Get a sufficiently light sail with a large enough coverage area and you can get to a reasonable percentage of C in a pretty short time. It works better if you have a space-based microwave power station that you test by launching this super-light sail (this is proposed/popularized by Robert Forward in a number of different science fiction/fact books).

      The issue with any space exploration is cost. To do exploration in a reasonable amount of time (100 years) you have to go a significant percentage of C. That's a LOT of speed and costs a LOT of money. You have to bankroll the project somehow, and in this case compound interest is working against you. If you can somehow bankroll a space-based power station (and it's the most cost-effective space construction I've heard of yet, but still requires something on the order of $1 TRILLION to build initially), then the cost of a super-light probe is pretty minor. Especially since you can start recouping costs immediately.

      • Re:costs (Score:2, Informative)

        by hyperturbopete ( 168434 )
        well.... the way things are now, the biggest hardware cost for space flight is the launch vehicle. you need like 7.5 kilometers/second to get into Low Earth Orbit, this generally sets you back $5K to $10K per kg into LEO (or like a factor of 3 or 4 higher for Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit, which is used for comm sats).

        [faqs.org]
        http://www.faqs.org/faqs/space/launchers/


        then you need like another 3 or 4 kilometers/second to get to the rest of the solar system (and you can do tricks like gravity assist etc once away from earth)

        so the problem isnt using a chem. rocket to go to mars, jupiter, etc but hauling that rocket's fuel up into LEO...

        solar sails require zero fuel. other futuristic space propulsion types all consume LOTS of power, which means bigger launch vehicle, bigger costs

        • Re:costs (Score:2, Informative)

          by Zathrus ( 232140 )
          Well, it's not so much that solar sails require zero fuel, it's just that the fuel they need isn't being provided by us.

          And yes, that's a big advantage.

          The big disadvantage, of course, is that solar sails are freaking slow. And freaking big. Freaking big means there's a lot more things to go wrong. Freaking slow means that you have to be able to wait a long, long time for any data from the sail. The other problem with freaking slow is that if it's too slow then it's likely to be passed in transit by some newer technology that isn't freaking slow.

          Using solar sails for in-system transit would take years to go places (which may be ok for unmanned ships). Using them for interstellar voyages without some kind of powered assist (e.g. - space based microwave power station) makes it so slow that you'll either get passed or whatever agenda sent you is long gone by the time you get to your objective.

          Solar sails are definitely neat, but they aren't a panacea to space travel problems.

          • Solar sails aren't necessarily slow. Current space probes have no onboard main engines, just attitude jets, sometimes a braking engine. They leave earth with a big push, but after that they only way they can accelerate is with gravity slingshots. And it still takes them years to get anywhere. Cassini was launched in what, 1997, and it still hasn't made it to Saturn yet.

            Solar sails (and ion engines) will also get a big push off from earth, will also be able to gravity-well slingshot. And they will also be able to accelerate continuously while en-route. They will be much, much faster than the current probes.

    • Re:why? (Score:5, Informative)

      by JimPooley ( 150814 ) on Monday April 29, 2002 @09:22AM (#3428668) Homepage
      Basically, what they're hoping to get out of it is space travel on the cheap. If you want to send a probe to the outer parts of the solar system, you can't carry enough fuel to constantly thrust. So you have to slingshot around other planets eking out a small supply of fuel for correctional purposes.
      Ion drive, as in Deep Space 1, is a way to lower the amount of fuel needed. This gives a very low level of thrust, but at a constant rate, so cumulative acceleration allows you to reach high speeds. This still needs some fuel, but less fuel than chemical rockets.
      A solar sail also gives low thrust which slowly builds acceleration over a period of time. And you don't need any fuel at all! So if you wanted to reach the outer solar system using a solar sail powered probe, then you wouldn't need lots of chemical rocket fuel, or ion drive propellant (Xenon was used by DS1, if I remember correctly) to get you there. You'd perhaps need a small amount for course correction, but your main source of thrust would be the sun.
      Less fuel = less weight = cheaper launches.

      This is just a prototype. If it works, it could lead to bigger and better solar sails which would make for cheaper spaceprobes to explore the outer reaches of the solar system.

      Hmmm. Sounds like this could be another Russian first in space to me...
      • first off we should stop thinking about it in terms of US vs Russia -- western-funded spacecraft are launched from russia because they have cheaper launch vehicles and fewer legal hassles

        the issue with ion rocket is the amount of electrical power required... Not sure how long / large a mission you need for it to pay off. Also, ion rocket usually powered by nuclear, which the well-meaning but misinformed public freaks out about (cassini) :-(

        The issue with solar sail is diminishing power away from sun, but thats about it! would be pretty sweet for lightweight science probes to the outer planets...

        I wonder how they slow down :-)

        • Re:why? (Score:2, Informative)

          by Zathrus ( 232140 )
          I wonder how they slow down

          Either they don't, which means you do fly-bys of everything, or they slow down the same way they speed up. By using the solar wind.

          I won't even begin to say I understand all the physics involved here, but apparantly you can essentially tack against the solar wind by using concentric circles and reflecting light from one circle to the other, thus giving the sail facing away from the star (or other power source) the "push".

          Like I said, I don't really understand the physics.

          It's discussed in Robert Forward's Indistinguisable from Magic [amazon.com] science fact/fiction novel (discusses futuristic science from a factual standpoint, then has a related SF story after each chapter).

          I suspect some sites on solar sails online would have info too.
    • I read a book [amazon.com] a couple of years ago describing the physics governing the solar sail. In book they mentioned that the first viable use of solar sailing wouldn't be for travelling to other stars or for probes, instead it would allow planetary travel between earth and mars in a reasonable amount of time.

      The ship could sail downwind to mars and instead of stopping in orbit at mars, it would pass by it. This would allow it to maintain momentum and then it would tack upwind back to earth. I forget the physics allowing the ship to pass towards the sun but it is similar to upwind sailing on a yacht. When it passes by earth and mars crews would only have on a short window to travel back and forth to the vessel before it started to the other planet.

      Another good point this book had was that the ship is very vulnerable to solar flare activity since that would be the equivalent to a storm. Unfortunately, all the material described in this book is theoretical so it will take tests like the proposal one to fine-tune the theories.

      • The Economic Viability of Mars Colonization (Score:5, Interesting)

        by bihoy ( 100694 ) on Monday April 29, 2002 @09:49AM (#3428782)
        Here's an abstract from a paper [aleph.se] that discusses colonizing Mars in some detail. Very interesting.

        "The economic viability of colonizing Mars is examined. It is shown, that of all bodies in the solar system other than Earth, Mars is unique in that it has the resources required to support a population of sufficient size to create locally a new branch of human civilization. It is also shown that while Mars may lack any cash material directly exportable to Earth, Mars' orbital elements and other physical parameters gives a unique positional advantage that will allow it to act as a keystone supporting extractive activities in the asteroid belt and elsewhere in the solar system. The potential of relatively near-term types of interplanetary transportation systems is examined, and it is shown that with very modest advances on a historical scale, systems can be put in place that will allow individuals and families to emigrate to Mars at their own discretion. Their motives for doing so will parallel in many ways the historical motives for Europeans and others to come to America, including higher pay rates in a labor-short economy, escape from tradition and oppression, as well as freedom to exercise their drive to create in an untamed and undefined world. Under conditions of such large scale immigration, sale of real-estate will add a significant source of income to the planet's economy. Potential increases in real-estate values after terraforming will provide a sufficient financial incentive to do so. In analogy to frontier America, social conditions on Mars will make it a pressure cooker for invention. These inventions, licensed on Earth, will raise both Terrestrial and Martian living standards and contribute large amounts of income to support the development of the colony."

      • > This would allow it to maintain momentum and then
        > it would tack upwind back to earth.

        Doesn't tacking require something to "tack" against, like water?

        When it's all huffing and puffing outward from the sun, there's nothing to tack against.

        Also, if you're flying by Mars at a high speed, you still have to get into a landing rocket and blow a ton of fuel to slow down. And you'd need a ton more to load that fuel onto the sail as it spins around earth (not to mention a 2nd load of fuel for getting up to sail speed by Mars for the return trip.)

  • Green Team In Space (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Chucow ( 572393 )
    That's very cool, very interesting. Glad to see that at least one space program is finally getting smart, creating a way to save energy and resources in space as well as to reduce space clutter [space.com].

    My only question is whether the "kick rocket" will enter orbit with the spacecraft.

  • It's nice to see that they are still able to do some cool R&D type work. I wonder how much of this type of thing is funded by their new space tourism program? It sure would be interesting to see a budget breakdown on that. Perhaps that could get NASA to think about a similar program. It seems like a great way to fund space research without tax dolllars..

  • Will the madness never end. (Score:4, Funny)

    by EReidJ ( 551124 ) on Monday April 29, 2002 @09:18AM (#3428651) Homepage
    Oh great, just what I needed, the sereneness of outer space being polluted by tourists with Solar Sailboats.

    You know it's just the first step, next there'll be...

    Solar Surfboards ("Dude, killer photon streams today!")..,

    Solar Beach Parties ("Hey, wicked tan in only 2 seconds!")...

    and of course, the ultimate insult, Solar Jet Skis (but at least you can't hear the noise from the engine).

  • It's really interesting that they'll launch it from a submarine. I wonder if a submarine launch is in any way better than a regular one, or if they do it just because they have some spare ballistic missiles to use.

    Maybe the rocket gains some starting speed from floating up to the surface before ignition, but then again this speed should be very small in comparison to the final speed of the rocket...

    Anyway - the rocket's name is Volna, not Cosmos - geez, submitters, read the article!
    • You can park a submarine at the equator, which makes it easier to launch. It doesn't require a special facility, and it gives the Russian Navy something to do.
    • Launching from a sub, means they can sail right up to the equator and do their launch from there.
      • Russian subs are actually really good at navigating up around the arctic circle, good for putting stuff in polar orbits.

        If you want to launch from the equator, this is the ship [sea-launch.com] to use:
    • Probably just using the spare missiles. Apparently they offer some cheap launch capability, especially for lower orbits. I read the Delft technical university is preparing to test an experimental re-entry vehicle using one of those missiles.
    • It's really interesting that they'll launch it from a submarine. I wonder if a submarine launch is in any way better than a regular one, or if they do it just because they have some spare ballistic missiles to use.

      The Volnas (demilitarized SS-N-19s) are launched from late '80s/early '90s-vintage Delta IV subs, all of which operate with Russia's northern fleet. I suspect that they're using subs as a launch platform because they're very, very mobile and probably cheaper to use than land-based facilities.
  • Solar Parasailing?

    ; - )
  • September is going to rock! Solar sailing space craft AND new Dragonball Z on cartoon network. Yup, that's my life, space and cartoons...
  • "aboard a Cosmos 1 rocket." No, the name of the mission and the solar sail craft itself is "Cosmos 1," not the rocket.
  • "The 88-pound spacecraft will also carry a camera that will capture pictures of the solar sails during the mission. "

    Wow, talk about a lean ship....why don't they do more like this..? Send a 12" ball covered in solar panels, lil cam and lil' jet propellers to right itself when need be, and just fire that sucker out of a cannon or something into space?

    Well that was a very carttonish description, but really, just like other tech. smaller may be the way to go here as well.

    Interesting stuff
    • Because the little 12" ball has no room for any kind of thrusters to navigate with. What they are trying to do is create a way to propel small probes like the one you discribe without any fuel or thrusters, just the sails. A well built prob like this could drive around the solar system indefinitly without needing to refuel.

  • Magnetic Bubbles (Score:5, Informative)

    by wyldeling ( 471661 ) on Monday April 29, 2002 @10:17AM (#3428895) Homepage
    NASA has been working on an alternative to the Solar Sail. The Solar Sail has one major draw back in its design (other than being technically difficult to implement), and that is the farther out in space it goes, the less force is transmitted to it by the solar wind. (Inverse square law.) A geophysicist is currently working on the idea of using a magnetic bubble [spacescience.com] as a solar sail. The advantage of this approach is that the mag bubble grows as the solar wind decreases. This creates a force that would be relatively constant until the heliopause (the end of the solar winds effective range) is reached.
    • The magnetic bubble approach uses less mass, is possibly more energy efficient, has a more flexible design, has a much greater operating range, and offers the wonderful bonus of sheilding the craft from the solar wind. Although since it can't capture the energy from photons, only ionized particles, the motive force is fundamentally different.
    • What they might need to do is develop an 'organic' sail that grows over time, increasing the surface area to match (as closely as possible) the inverse sqare rule.
    • and that is the farther out in space it goes, the less force is transmitted to it by the solar wind.

      As far as I know the inital plan is to launch it toward the Sun, and have it gain enough photon-thrust for the initial acceleration, so that it could fly toward a destination in high(and constant) speed, until it crashes or is crashed.(with well-engineered steering, crash could be avoid)

      It would be a dangerous task, as you can imagine - if it gets too near the Sun, it'll melt; if it doesn't get near enough, then the solar sail would not gain enough initial thrust for the perpetual voyage.
    • Anyone got any recent information?
    • Solar sails use photons primarily for propulsion, not the solar wind, tho it is indeed a factor. I know, I'm quibbling, but it's fun.
  • is that the russians have the cash to send this up. I haven't heard anything about them borrowing for this project, and we all know how stellar an economy they have - shit, at this rate we (us) should be able to put a 300m sail up in less than a year, especially since it looks like this would take up maybe one shuttle payload. now going off on a tangent, what happened to the russian orbiter? haven't heard about that one in years...
  • Any of you astronomer types out there able to give a rough guess as to the intinsic brightness of this thing? Will it be a naked-eye object? Perhaps only at certain times of the year, when Earth crosses it's reflection path. Inquiring minds (and lazy slashdotters) want to know.

  • Other countries are ahead of us... We're doing the same things [caltech.edu] at the university level already.

  • Check Space Weather when sailing (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ch-chuck ( 9622 ) on Monday April 29, 2002 @10:57AM (#3429059) Homepage
    right here [spaceweather.com] - current conditions:
    Solar Wind speed: 512.9 km/s
    density:3.5 protons/cm3

    plus more.

  • Just like the ancient Bajorans (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Wise Dragon ( 71071 ) on Monday April 29, 2002 @11:57AM (#3429324) Homepage
    Reminds me of Deep Space 9, Season 3, Episode 22, "Explorers", which I just watched this morning. Sisko and his son pilot a reconstruction of an ancient Bajoran solar-sail spacecraft to Cardassia. They run ino some difficulties with "tachyon eddies" ripping their sails off.

    Wonder if there really are some kind of particle eddies which would damage the sails?

  • How does this work? (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Can you tack against a solar wind? I kinda don't think that photons exhibit a gas pressure like wind (you can push a balloon around, but not inflate it with light?) that would make use of a wing surface on a sail for movment against the solar wind.

    Does anyone know? Are solar sailers destined to get thrust only away from the sun?

    Adam
    • If the sail is reflecting the photons will bounce of in an angle and giving you it momentum in an angle relkated to the ship thus giving you the ability to control your direction. You could however never sail towards the sun, you could slingshot around a planet further away from you and then retract your sail (or have a nonreflecting front of the sails) and just go on your momentum towards the sun
      • Um, yes you can sail towards the sun, by tacking against the sunlight to reduce orbital velocity around the sun, thus dropping steadily towards the sun. Um, think of a shrinking spiral.

        Reverse the process by tacking to increase orbital speed, and you move away in an increasingly large spiral.
  • Does anyone know whether these sails work with a bernoulli effect (like a yacht sail) or simple momentum transfer (like a parachute)?

    Please forgive the oversimplification, it's done in the name of clarity.

  • Previous solar sail discussions on Slashdot (Score:4, Informative)

    by pomakis ( 323200 ) <pomakis@pobox.com> on Monday April 29, 2002 @12:49PM (#3429585) Homepage
    FYI, here are some previous solar sail discussions on Slashdot:

  • First: Turn console switch ON... and LEAVE EVERYTHING ALONE.

    Please refer to this [intellivisionlives.com] for additional instruction.

    And I can not repeat this enough: Watch out for the grid bugs!

  • Just so you know, some of the designs (most notably the sails) were tested by adolescent (think Freshman/Sophomore in high school) students. True story! Here [osc.edu] is a link to the project description, though it's brief on info, and here [osc.edu] is an mpeg of the simulations. I wouldn't be too frightened, though, since they did a generally good job.
  • very very excited by this launch but I hope it works in ways I don't normally worry about launches. whats the chance that NASA would try a solar sail if the russians fail? and the russians don't strike me as being pioneers anymore. ok this is pioneering but they don't strike me as being successful pioneers of late. good luck ruskies.
    • "whats the chance that NASA would try a solar sail if the russians fail? " - almost certain.

      Having good american engineering succeed where the Russians failed should be just the kind of story that NASA could use to get funding from politicians.

      Now if the Russians were succesful ... i doubt NASA will touch solar sails in a loong time. No politician wants to pay for the honor of trailing the russians.

  • hmm (Score:1)

    by SPaReK ( 320677 )
    Just the camera, S-band radio and main computer are yet to be completed.

    Well, atleast the wings are installed... its almost ready.

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