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NASA Proposes Launch Of Solar Sail Vehicle For 2010
outcast341 writes: "Apparently, NASA plans to
launch a solar
sail spacecraft in the year 2010, according to this press release. The the first trip
will take about 15 years, traveling about 58 miles per second. The sail will be 440 yards
in width, and will be constructed of a reflective carbon-fiber material. 'This will be
humankind's first
planned venture outside our solar system,' said Les Johnson, manager of
Interstellar Propulsion Research at the Marshall Center. 'This is a
stretch goal that is among the most audacious things we've ever
undertaken.'" (Read more.)
And if a mere 15 years from now and using technology that's lapping on the safe side of fringedom isn't enough to make you bite, Joseph Rosenblum reminds us, "Not news, but cool: if you havn't seen it, NASA has a Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Program that is a speculative research division looking into the technologies that will one day enable interstellar travel. There's also a 'Warp Drive, When?' FAQ!"
If I were them I'd not unfurl the sail until the device was out of the ecliptic or outside jupiter.
You still have to go through the Kuiper belt though.
-Yarn - Rio Karma: Excellent
This is our chance to DESTROY V-GER well before it gets to the 23rd century and is programmed to destroy all carbon-based life forms!!!
Eat your heart our Captain Kirk.
And if a mere 15 years from now and using technology that's lapping on the safe side of fringedom
Current Year: 2000
Year of launch: 2010
Good Math.
I also think it's interesting that it'll pass Voyager in 2018. It's like starting a computing problem that will take 6 years to complete. If you start it today, it'll be done in 2006. If you start it 2 years from now, and computers are twice as fast, it'll be done in 2005.
Anyway, thank God NASA is doing something like this. People talk about privatizing the space industry and what not, but there are still things that only NASA can do.
If you read the actual NASA press release, the goal for the launch is around 2010 but it will take fifteen years (after that) to go 23 billion miles past our solar system. (They hint that the destination is Alpha Centauri).
--Ben
Slashdot is the modern day equivalent of the "telephone game".
NASA has, for unmaned space travel at least, taken a turn in its philosophy. This turn has not been trumpeted by the press. The fact is that some years ago NASA decided, again bear in mind that I'm talking unmanned craft here, it would be cheaper and more effective in the long run to launch cheaply, often, but with a higher failure rate. This is exactly what they have done.
The funny thing is that their failure rate is considerably BELOW what they themselves predicted. They are, in fact, doing a *terrific* job.
Does the press explain this? Not on your life!
Which headline do you think sells more papers?
"Another Mars Probe Vanishes Mysteriously!!!"
( Causing a guy I know to actually think that Martians are shooting them down)
Or,
"Nasa says Lose Rate Still Below Expectations."
" When asked to explain a NASA scientist said, 'We're building quick and dirty, but CHEAP. We're saving the taxpayer money overall, and getting MORE data in the long run. Overall, we're getting far more successes this way than we had dared to hope for."
As for the manned program it really all went to hell back when we dropped the X program for the crash program to the moon.
The crash program did at least end up giving us the only rocker booster we've ever made with a 100% success rate.
By the way, it was designed by one of "our" captured WWII Germans.
" In German, und English, I know how to count down, and I'm learning Chinese, says Werner Von Braun...
One the Rockets are up who cares where they come down, that's not my department, says Werner Von Braun.."
-Tom Lehrer
To tell you the truth I don't know what an analysis of Martian soil will do to effect the way you and the rest of society live their lives.
I CAN, however, list a few ways that that it has effected my life *so far.*
The Transistor/IC/Microchip and hence the Home computer. The PII 400 I'm writing to you with puts more raw computing power on my home desk than all of NASA had *combined* during the Apollo program and is a direct result of that program.
The internet itself, something that many consider the biggest change to the way we live our lives, exists, at least in part, due to the space program. The rest of the responsibility for the internet goes entirely to other "big science" projects.
The WWW and HTML come to us *directly* from the subatomic research people at CERN.
The internet and the WWW alone may end up being worth every penny we've ever spent on big science.
Nomex (tm) fireproof cloth, which saves hundreds of lives every year came directly from the space program.
Carbon Fiber composites. Kevlar. Cheap Titanium.
Modern telecommunications and GPS. Recently a solo around the world sailboat racer was rescued from disaster. Her position could be pinpointed with GPS and her rescuer was notified of her plight by *E-Mail* sent by satellite transmission!
And to wrap it up before I go on and on and on I'll bring up my closing point while directly addressing one of your key concerns.
Great wopping GOBS of big science money is spent on basic medical and biological research. Big science has advance the state of medical knowledge far beyond what anything else ever has, and has saved millions of lives. Much of this research was done directly by NASA. Which is the main thrust of my final point. The money spent by a big project outfit like NASA dosn't ALL go just into the main object of the project. Rockets are the SMALLEST part of the NASA budget. The peripheral research and technological fallout to the public is a just plain HUGE part of "big science."
Could I have told you in advance that a cyclotron would result in the WWW and HTML? No. I'm a scientist, not a psychic. But it did. Other projects will have similar social benifits. I can't tell you what they are yet though, we havn't found out yet, but the record of PAST benfit is huge.
Now we are just begining to synthesis some of what already have. Take Nomex, Kevlar and carbon fiber and *combine* them with big science medical research and you now have millions of people who's lives can be saved by using these to rebuild arteries, rebuild shattered bones, make functional replacement for missing limbs. The list goes on and I'm in danger of not wrapping this up.
Look around you. Think about it.
after the whole mix-up, NASA impressed upon everyone to use metric units as much as possible -- that that should always be the default. in a lot of areas it is anyways. according to my boyfriend (the mechanical engineer), the reason why they have to stick with those crazy units is becasue the manufacturing capability of the whole US is geared towards it. it's not exactly a good thing to design a part in metric, convert the numbers, and hand it over to the machine shop.
/crazy/ in metric. while this isn't a huge problem if you don't need a really, really good tolerance, for space stuff it's absolutely necessary.
interestingly enough, this happens in reverse a lot when something in designed in the US and manufactured in other countries -- the engineers are used to imperial, so that's what they use, and the numbers end up being
Lea
All you would need is a big assed roll of duct tape and you could patch that hole in a jiffy. There is nothing that duct tape will not fix.
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For example, Massachusetts was considering renumbering all of the exit ramps on the interstates to coincide with the distances (in miles) from the border (N/S, I don't remember). This would make numbering new exits much easier, as they'd simply follow suit. People protested, saying that they liked the exit number as they were. As a result, we still have exits numbered 21B, 42A, etc. I think we even have a couple C's and D's. Americans just don't like the idea of change very much.
Another reason is that Imperial units were much easier to deal with before computers/calculators than metric. Dividing any number by 10 is easy, metric or Imperial. Just move the decimal place. And to divide by 5, just divide by 10 and double it. But Imeperial units divide evenly by both 2 and 3, a pain with metric. (I know, I know, it's easy to divide by three. But remember, we're nerds. Not everyone could read, let alone divide, when the standard was adopted.)
- Ricky
ERROR READING WARP DRIVE
ABORT, RETRY, FAIL, IGNORE?
I dont see any mention of data aquistition. Is it just going to be carrying the standard picture of people with no clothes, or will it actually have some active components to phone home? I wonder if they could use the sail as a large antenna...
-Yarn - Rio Karma: Excellent
Of course someone will think those numbers are in meters...
All opinions are my own - until criticized
It's nice to see NASA taking the long view of things, but when you consider the alternatives, it seems a little nuts to be considering building a solar sail now or in the next 10 years.
The better alternative would be a magsail, which should be more feasible in 10 years and will weigh less than a ligthsail.
A magsail would consist of a loop of high-temperature superconducting wire. When a charge is run through it, the magnetic field created deflects the solar wind and imparts velocity to the spacecraft.
Downside is, you have to carry a power source. Upside is, with the weight saved in changing from a lightsail to a magsail, this should be negligible. Use a nuclear-thermal battery like in Cassini (about 72 pounds), fire that probe on a close gravity slingshot around the sun, and as it comes around the direction you're aiming for, unfurl the magsail, power that puppy up, and you're *gone*
(Incidentally, these are used in the book "Encounter with Tiber" by John Barnes and Buzz Aldrin. Don't get scared away by the famous name on the cover...it's a great book, and I've been praying that they make a sequel.
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