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How Solar Sails Work

Posted by Hemos on from the learning-more-about-the-world dept.

Gary writes "You can also learn more about How Solar Sails work. In mid-April 2001, The Planetary Society, in collaboration with several Russian space organizations, will test launch the deployment mechanism for the first solar-sail mission, Cosmos-1, in a sub-orbital flight. It is a rounded solar sail that is divided into eight triangular blades with inflatable booms for support. Maneuvering a solar-sail spacecraft requires balancing two factors: the direction of the solar sail relative to the sun and the orbital speed of the spacecraft."

1 of 83 comments (clear)

  1. This is nothing new by Magumbo · · Score: 5
    The scientologists used a similar technology when they came to earth 65,000,000,000 billion years ago. Everybody knows that.

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