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Solar Sails

Posted by michael on from the beating-swords-into-plowshares dept.

carpediem55 writes "Reuters is reporting that The Planetary Society (founded by Carl Sagan) is bringing science fiction to life, with a Solar Sail powered by light." But get how they plan to launch it: on a Russian submarine ICBM. The sponsors have a site with more information.

2 of 133 comments (clear)

  1. There's a better way.. by Blind+RMS+Groupie · · Score: 5
    This is certainly interesting, especially in that it's being done by a private firm, but I find the idea of Mini-Magnetospheric Plasma Propulsion (M2P2) much more fascinating. The idea is that you replicate a miniature version of the Earth's magnetosphere around a spacecraft and let the plasma push against that instead. The beauty of it is that thrust remains relatively constant because as the craft moves farther away from the sun the reduced plasma pressure results in a correspondingly larger artifical magnetosphere. Also the thrust can be varied electronically instead of mechanically and there's no moving parts.

    --

  2. Re:Small question... by vidarh · · Score: 5
    Launching from a sub does make sense for several reasons:

    First of all, the Russians do their land based launches from Baikonur, which is relatively far north. Normally, you'd prefer to do launches close to equator to get the maximal benefit of earth rotation. The Russians incur a lot of extra costs because of the position of Baikonur. (and this is also one of the reasons for the orbit MIR is in - they need to get it far enough north to be able to reach it cheaply from Baikonur). Launching from sea means they'll be able to launch from international waters and be independent of having their own land based launch areas near equator.

    Second, there's strict international regulations on such launches, to prevent interference with aircraft. Which you should be happy about the next time you're flying anywhere... :) Launching from sea simplifies things, because most traffic is clustered around or between big cities, and the further out at sea you go, the less flights will pass through the area. So it reduces the administrational issues of ensuring no passenger flights or other aircrafts pass right overhead during the launch.

    Environmental effects and other hazards are always an issue during rocket launches. The rocket can misfire, or explode. Parts may be hurtled through the area in the case of an accident. Dangerous materials or toxic gases may be released as a result of fire etc. Tons of things can go wrong. While it won't be good at sea either, at least you face less immediate threats to human life.

    You also lessen the environmental impact of indigneous animals etc. (which has been a major concern with ESAs Ariane launch site in Central America).