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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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