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Japanese Solar Sails
from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3555048.stm
"Last Updated: Wednesday, 11 August, 2004, 10:49 GMT 11:49 UK Japan unfurls solar sail in space Japan has unfurled a delicate solar sail in space, a device which some scientists believe could enable travel to far away planets. The Japanese Institute of Space Astronautical Science (ISAS) has tested two sails aboard its S-310-34 rocket." a few details more are in the article. /dps |
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Japanese Solar Sails
from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3555048.stm
Some of the reporting has made this sound like a bit more than it was. They didn't make a solar sail work, or test something which can go to other stars, or anything like that. This was a suborbital test which lasted minutes, not long enough to really get a good idea of how the thing flies. And the "solar sails to the stars" bit is rather far off (requires huge lasers, etc, etc). Having said that, it is still a significant accomplishment. Deploying a complicated structure in space is a big hurdle, and especially so for something as lightweight as a solar sail. So my hats off to ISAS for a successful mission, and for flying hardware rather than just making paper designs. May this be the first of an ongoing program of solar sail development. |
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Japanese Solar Sails
Jim Kingdon wrote in message ...
from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3555048.stm [...] Having said that, it is still a significant accomplishment. Deploying a complicated structure in space is a big hurdle, and especially so for something as lightweight as a solar sail. So my hats off to ISAS for a successful mission, and for flying hardware rather than just making paper designs. May this be the first of an ongoing program of solar sail development. Indeed, NASA and its sail contractors are still doing ground tests in vacuum chambers. There was just a press release about this ....3 days ago: http://www.msfc.nasa.gov/news/news/releases/2004/04-208.html also seen on Science Daily on the 11th http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/headlines.htm /dps |
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Jim Kingdon wrote:
[snip] Having said that, it is still a significant accomplishment. Deploying a complicated structure in space is a big hurdle, and especially so for something as lightweight as a solar sail. So my hats off to ISAS for a successful mission, and for flying hardware rather than just making paper designs. May this be the first of an ongoing program of solar sail development. Yup. They proved that both deployment techniques they tried word. Which is no small thing, it's hard to test solar sail deployment on the ground, and if the deployment doesn't work you're screwed. It also shows how sub-orbital launches can be useful in space exploration. There are usually quite a few sub-orbital flights every year, but they usually don't get much coverage. |
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Jim Kingdon wrote:
[snip] Having said that, it is still a significant accomplishment. Deploying a complicated structure in space is a big hurdle, and especially so for something as lightweight as a solar sail. So my hats off to ISAS for a successful mission, and for flying hardware rather than just making paper designs. May this be the first of an ongoing program of solar sail development. Yup. They proved that both deployment techniques they tried word. Which is no small thing, it's hard to test solar sail deployment on the ground, and if the deployment doesn't work you're screwed. It also shows how sub-orbital launches can be useful in space exploration. There are usually quite a few sub-orbital flights every year, but they usually don't get much coverage. |
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Jim Kingdon wrote:
[snip] Having said that, it is still a significant accomplishment. Deploying a complicated structure in space is a big hurdle, and especially so for something as lightweight as a solar sail. So my hats off to ISAS for a successful mission, and for flying hardware rather than just making paper designs. May this be the first of an ongoing program of solar sail development. Yup. They proved that both deployment techniques they tried word. Which is no small thing, it's hard to test solar sail deployment on the ground, and if the deployment doesn't work you're screwed. It also shows how sub-orbital launches can be useful in space exploration. There are usually quite a few sub-orbital flights every year, but they usually don't get much coverage. |
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Christopher M. Jones wrote:
Yup. They proved that both deployment techniques they tried word. Which is no small thing, it's hard to test solar sail deployment on the ground, and if the deployment doesn't work you're screwed. It also shows how sub-orbital launches can be useful in space exploration. There are usually quite a few sub-orbital flights every year, but they usually don't get much coverage. The Russians have their "Cosmos 1" solar sail under final construction, as noted in this article: http://www.spacedaily.com/news/solarsails-04c.html They are shooting for a launch at the end of this year, or the beginning of 2005. Pat |
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