Space ship sets solar sail for the New World
Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2005 2:35 pm
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/
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/
