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Author Topic: Private, space-sail launch
Hobbes
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Exciting, hope it works! [Cool]

Hobbes [Smile]
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rivka
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So [Cool] ! I didn't know anything like this had gotten past the drawing board!
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0range7Penguin
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Wow, I'm impressed. I will have to keep an I out for news on tuesday.
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Parsimony
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That thing is pretty darn cheap. It would be great if it works.

--ApostleRadio
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James Tiberius Kirk
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w00t!

--j_k
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Shan
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well, that's nifty!
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Teshi
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EDIT: Never mind, interstellar travel would be possible because the ship could build up speed before exiting the solar system.

(Use your brain, Teshi!)

But otherwise, this is awesome [Smile] .
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screechowl
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Planetary Society about the solar sail spacecraft:

http://www.planetary.org/solarsail/watch/guide.html

Photon Sail! I remember reading more than one science fiction story with this idea. Who originated the concept?

Exciting stuff.
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Morbo
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Kepler came up with the concept, according to wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_sail
And they have an external source to back them up: http://www.rednova.com/

Wow, I'm surprised--I thought a 20th century scientist or science fiction writer thought it up.
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screechowl
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I was trying to think of some stories that mentioned photon sails or something similar.

Did The Mote in God's Eye? The Moties used a laser cannon, but didn't their ships use light sails??? I don't have a copy here.

What were some others?
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fugu13
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Yes, it was a light sail powered by massive laser cannons.
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rivka
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Solar sailers have shown up in all kinds of places: multiple Niven books, at least a couple ST novels . . . um, if I had my book collection around, I could find some more.

I always thought they were awesome. And now one is REAL! [Big Grin]
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aspectre
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Personally like the idea of harvesting the antimatter that's up in orbit, and using that as the lightsail propellant. And nope, that ain't StarTrek fantasy, or even as much of an engineering challenge as the petaWatt laser ala The Mote in God's Eye.
Cosmic rays coming from the universe colliding with hydrogen in the solarwind going out from the Sun produces antimatter.
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0range7Penguin
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how does one harvest antimatter exactly? I thought it couldn't come in contact with matter or something?
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aspectre
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The antimatter harvester
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James Tiberius Kirk
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quote:
Cosmos 1, a disc-shaped craft whose two segmented sails suggest flower petals, is set to blast off from a submerged Russian submarine in the Barents Sea at 12:46 p.m. PDT (1946 GMT) on Tuesday.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/space/06/21/russia.cosmos.reut/index.html

to space! A little more than three hours from now.

--j_k
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romanylass
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That is such a surprise! I didn't think I'd see them in my lifetime.
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Hobbes
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You get what you pay for.

Hobbes [Smile]
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alluvion
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*sweet sauce*

I hope it pans out (no pun intended)
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Scott R
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How does the sail deal with debris?
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Alcon
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Not well I would guess...
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romanylass
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They would have thought of ways to deal with that, no? Or should have.
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