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The $27 million Sunjammer mission, which takes its name from the Arthur C. Clarke story, will use a sail built by California-based company L'Garde that measures 124 feet (38 m) on a side. The sail, made of an advanced material called Kapton, is just 5 microns (about 0.0002 inches) thick. It weighs less than 70 pounds (32 kilograms) and packs down to the size of a dishwasher, NASA officials have said.
A spacecraft equipped with a sail 1,300 feet (400 meters) wide, for example, could travel 1.3 billion miles (2.1 billion kilometers) per year, allowing it to escape the sun's sphere of influence in just a decade or so, according to researchers behind the Interstellar Probe, a NASA concept mission proposed about 15 years ago. [Photos: Solar Sail Evolution for Space Travel]
originally posted by: Beartracker16
Am I wrong or does a solar sail only work moving away from the sun?
On a less serious note: What do they do at night?
originally posted by: Beartracker16
Am I wrong or does a solar sail only work moving away from the sun?
On a less serious note: What do they do at night?
originally posted by: BlastedCaddy
OH.... it really is a sail. I figured it was a convenient term not an actual sail. I'm pretty ignorant to the whole thing.
It looks like a waste of money ,imo.
How would this large piece of fancy poster board traverse space without getting destroyed?
originally posted by: big_BHOY
Waste of time imo! VASIMIR with only a 200kw engine has the ability to reach Mars in 39 days. Scale that up to a megawatt & the whole solar system opens up.
...A solar sail would increase its speed by approximately 310 kilometers per hour (195 mph) after one day, moving 7500 kilometers (4700 miles) in the process. After 12 days it will have increased its speed 3700 kilometers per hour (2300 mph).
While these speeds and distances are already substantial for interplanetary travel, they are insignificant when compared to the requirements of a journey to the stars. Given time, however, with small but constant acceleration, a solar sail spacecraft can reach any desired speed. If the acceleration diminishes due to an increasing distance from the Sun, some scientists have proposed pointing powerful laser beams at the spacecraft to propel it forward. Although such a strategy is not practicable with current technology and resources, solar sailing is nevertheless the only known technology that could someday be used for interstellar travel
www.planetary.org...
originally posted by: crazyewok
originally posted by: big_BHOY
Waste of time imo! VASIMIR with only a 200kw engine has the ability to reach Mars in 39 days. Scale that up to a megawatt & the whole solar system opens up.
O i agree.
Problem with it is the hippy brigade.
To get the 200kw or mw you need a nuclear reactor for power. The hippy brigade throw a fit everytime space angencys mention the N word.
If it wernt for these ignorant flower brained tree huggers we likley would already have colonys on mars and likley be exploring the outer solar system.
We need to go nuclear or go home when it comes to space! Playing with toy chem rockets wonr get us very far.
As for solar sails? A good thing for probes but for long range manned flight? Likley wont be much good.y
originally posted by: DigitalJedi805
All in all, space travel is sketchy, Nuclear, Solar, or ... Dark Matter - we're rolling the dice, and that's just part of the game. I'd honestly like to see a hundred thousand people on a hybrid ship with prefabricated BioDomes head to Mars; what's the worst that could happen? Iraq? Ahem....