What ever happened to "solar sail" propulsion?

Remember? Large, (square km, etc) thin aluminized mylar film sails that could reach respectable speeds and delivery packages to planets? The mylar film models weren't idea (idea would be carbon nanotube constructs, but they can't make it very large yet) but could work for the inner planets. Yet, what seems like a relatively simple craft, that has been a concept for almost 100 YEARS, has never been exploited by NASA, the Russkies or the Chinese..

On Thursday, May 7, 2015 at 3:13:07 AM UTC-4, RichA wrote:
Remember? Large, (square km, etc) thin aluminized mylar film sails that could
reach respectable speeds and delivery packages to planets? The mylar film
models weren't idea (idea would be carbon nanotube constructs, but they can't
make it very large yet) but could work for the inner planets. Yet, what seems
like a relatively simple craft, that has been a concept for almost 100 YEARS,
has never been exploited by NASA, the Russkies or the Chinese.

They're still working on it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_s...g_or_completed

On Thursday, 7 May 2015 06:36:23 UTC-4, wrote:
On Thursday, May 7, 2015 at 3:13:07 AM UTC-4, RichA wrote:
Remember? Large, (square km, etc) thin aluminized mylar film sails that could
reach respectable speeds and delivery packages to planets? The mylar film
models weren't idea (idea would be carbon nanotube constructs, but they can't
make it very large yet) but could work for the inner planets. Yet, what seems
like a relatively simple craft, that has been a concept for almost 100 YEARS,
has never been exploited by NASA, the Russkies or the Chinese.

They're still working on it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_s...g_or_completed

They sure aren't serious about it.

On Friday, May 8, 2015 at 7:45:52 PM UTC-6, RichA wrote:

They sure aren't serious about it.

As befits an idea that is not a particularly good one... for some values of
good.

The problem is, basically, that it is not terribly useful for anything NASA or
anyone else wants to *do* in space right now. It's bad enough that launching a
space probe even to Jupiter won't yield pretty pictures for the news until
*after* the current terms of office of the politicians who voted to appropriate
money for it - a propulsion method that saves money by allowing journeys to
take a very long time indeed would mean the results wouldn't come back in the
politicians' (or voters') *lifetimes*.

Issues of venality aside, it's hard enough making electronic circuitry that's
reliable enough to last, under bombardment by radiation in space, until a space
probe reaches its destination.

And then there's the "far Centaurus" problem - by the time the probe gets
there, its instrumentation will be laughably primitive.

They'll get serious about solar sails when they're *good for something*.

John Savard

On Saturday, 9 May 2015 17:55:16 UTC-4, Quadibloc wrote:
On Friday, May 8, 2015 at 7:45:52 PM UTC-6, RichA wrote:

They sure aren't serious about it.

As befits an idea that is not a particularly good one... for some values of
good.

The problem is, basically, that it is not terribly useful for anything NASA or
anyone else wants to *do* in space right now. It's bad enough that launching a
space probe even to Jupiter won't yield pretty pictures for the news until
*after* the current terms of office of the politicians who voted to appropriate
money for it - a propulsion method that saves money by allowing journeys to
take a very long time indeed would mean the results wouldn't come back in the
politicians' (or voters') *lifetimes*.

Issues of venality aside, it's hard enough making electronic circuitry that's
reliable enough to last, under bombardment by radiation in space, until a space
probe reaches its destination.

And then there's the "far Centaurus" problem - by the time the probe gets
there, its instrumentation will be laughably primitive.

They'll get serious about solar sails when they're *good for something*.

John Savard

Well, build a mile-wide one, make sure the deployment of the thing works, and aim it at an outer planet, as a test. Provision it it modestly, with mainly cameras. They won't get anywhere doing nothing.

RichA wrote:
On Saturday, 9 May 2015 17:55:16 UTC-4, Quadibloc wrote:
On Friday, May 8, 2015 at 7:45:52 PM UTC-6, RichA wrote:

They sure aren't serious about it.

As befits an idea that is not a particularly good one... for some values of
good.

The problem is, basically, that it is not terribly useful for anything NASA or
anyone else wants to *do* in space right now. It's bad enough that launching a
space probe even to Jupiter won't yield pretty pictures for the news until
*after* the current terms of office of the politicians who voted to appropriate
money for it - a propulsion method that saves money by allowing journeys to
take a very long time indeed would mean the results wouldn't come back in the
politicians' (or voters') *lifetimes*.

Issues of venality aside, it's hard enough making electronic circuitry that's
reliable enough to last, under bombardment by radiation in space, until a space
probe reaches its destination.

And then there's the "far Centaurus" problem - by the time the probe gets
there, its instrumentation will be laughably primitive.

They'll get serious about solar sails when they're *good for something*.

John Savard

Well, build a mile-wide one, make sure the deployment of the thing works,
and aim it at an outer planet, as a test. Provision it it modestly, with
mainly cameras. They won't get anywhere doing nothing.

If you really care about the solar sail here's the chance to put your money
where your mouth is!

http://www.engadget.com/2015/05/13/l...ter-sagan-nye/