Posted on 07/27/2019 3:50:28 AM PDT by C19fan
Stunning new images snapped in orbit show LightSail 2’s solar sail outstretched and ready to take on the next phase of its mission. The Planetary Society announced that the 18-foot-wide Mylar sail had successfully deployed earlier this week, following a late-June launch atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. It’s just one five-thousandth of an inch thick, or about the width of a human hair. The milestone could pave the way for lower-cost spacecraft propulsion, allowing small craft to be driven by sunlight.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
That’s one skinny hair width.
Most are about three thousands of an inch,
about the same as a sheet of dollar bill.
*ping*
We should be sailing the stellar seas mining asteroids.
You start near shore, gain knowledge and confidence and then explore further.
.0058 mm/sec sq.
I think that’s 3.6 meters / minute of acceleration.
We have met the Moties and they are us? Crazy Eddie!
My bad.
0.0058 mm/s2 = 0.02088 m/min2
The article gives conceptual credit to Sagan. However I remember reading an Isaac Asimov SciFi story in Boy’s Life in the 1950s. It involved a spacecraft called Diana and a race to Jupiter. A sort of interplanetary America’s Cup.
Disney’s Flight to Mars Tomorrowland series in the 50’s used solar sails to arrive at Mars.
There were many articles written about space sailing in the 1920s. Jules Verne wrote about using the pressure of sunlight to move a ship through space in the 1860s I believe. It probably predates Verne.
I still remember the story, very well written. found on line here - https://bookzone.boyslife.org/arthur-c-clarke/
The illustration was pretty neat as well.
Thanks!
Brings back fond memories!
I think my original post said 1950s I meant 1960s.
1964 I was nine then, I remember sitting in the kitchen telling my mother about the story.
It takes your breath away.
Japanese sail from ISS
Ikaros: First Successful Solar Sail (https://www.space.com/25800-ikaros-solar-sail.html)
closeup of payload o the Ikaros.
Thanks fieldmarshaldj.
Assuming constant acceleration the velocity boost would be roughly 1000 meters per second after a month. Darkness and poor sun angles will reduce that by quite a bit, but still, with a typical low Earth oribtal velocity of around 32,000 m/s the velocity boost should be measurable.
So Merton didn’t cut the lines so his spacecraft could be the fastest ever. That reminds of the guy who launched his car into the Asteroid Belt.
No matter. Those Newtons add up.
I wonder what keeps the sail perpendicular to the solar wind?
Didn’t one of the scifi guys take it to the next level of a book? Anyway, I remember the concept and I was long past Boys Life by that date.
My only thought at the time was what about the cosmic dust and small asteroids turning it into swiss Mylar.
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