Space ship sets solar sail for the New World

[capt_buzzard]

The World's first solar sail is due to be launched tomorrow from a Russian nuclear submarine in the Barents Sea.

Cosmos 1 will be launched on a converted intercontinental ballistic missile and, once in orbit, will unfurl eight ultra-thin triangular sails, each about 14 metres long, in a windmill formation.

The private US-Russian consortium which developed the craft said photons, or light particles, bouncing off the reflective sails would propel it.

If successful, the mission will be as big a milestone for space exploration as the invention of the fabric sail was for Earth travel. Solar sails could replace rockets on spacecraft within a decade and, with a boost from satelite-based laser, reach Pluto within two years and Alpha Centauri, closest star to Earth, within 1,000.

Louis Friedman, the excutive director of the Planetary Society, a private group which spearheaded the project, said '' The thing about solar sailing is that you don't need to carry fuel. The real hope is that it becomes a way to travel between planets. And this is the only technology that leads in the long range to interstellar flight.''

The project also highlights the growing role played by the private sector in space exploration.

Dr Friedman was in charge of developing solar sails for NASA in the 1970s, and worked on a project to use the technology to intercept Halley's Comet. But it was shelved because it was too expensive.



Independent News Ireland



www.unison.ie/

[Lionrampant]

Yup, and it has crashed and burned. Never liked the idea of solar sails anyway as they are too delicate. bring on the Ion propolsion system......

Still, we can now focus on July 2nd for a deep impact show of a life-time. I hope it all goes well......

[Jives]

Hey, I thought I was the only guy on this board that knew about the Deep Space 1 Ion Drive Engine.!

[Jives]

To Heck with traveling at all, I'm pinning my hopes on Quantum Teleportation.

Go home from a hard day, step into a phone booth, dial a number, step out onto the beach in Hawaii!

[capt_buzzard]

Yup it crashed. But the US backers of the privately funded Cosmos 1 mission refused to give up hope.



If at first you fail, do try again:wah: