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Solar Sail Fails Again
LtFiend writes: "It seems that they've failed at sending up the solar sail prototype again. This time the unit crashed to earth after the final separation of the rocket didn't execute. What a shame. I really hope this project can get back on track quickly."
"We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too."
It is from an address given at Rice University in Houston (where Mission Control is located) on September 12, 1962. This is also the speech that contains the phrase "We set sail on this new sea because there is new knowledge to be gained, and new rights to be won, and they must be won and used for the progress of all people."
I look up to Kennedy because he was so truly enthusiastic about the space program like no President since has had the guts to be.
i am a soviet space shuttle
First, it helps to bring the concept of the solar sail as a valid idea to the public eye. Solar sails have been something of a mainstay in some science fiction series as a way of getting to other planets and have even shown up in some popular sci-fi series (one episode of Deep Space Nine, for instance, showed an old Bajoran solar sail vessel, albeit with far too little sail area to accelerate as "fast" as more serious concepts would). However, other more conventional systems (by far the chemical rocket, but followed to a lesser extent by nuclear rockets (does anyone recall the NERVA program that might have sent humans to Mars by the 1980s?) and ion propulsion: how many of you knew that the term TIE Fighter from Star Wars stands for "Twin Ion Engine"? Star Wars never stated what gas was used in those systems, but the gas that has been used in the Deep Space 1 mission and in the Artemis commercial spacecraft. Now that the Planetary Society, which is a well-respected organization, has attempted to actually fly a solar sail, the public will become aware of the possibility.
It helps to bring the existence of such organizations into the spotlight as well. The Planetary Society has been active for decades -- it was founded by Carl Sagan -- and there are others, including what is perhaps the best-known of these groups: the National Space Society. Others, far less well known, exist, ranging from fan clubs for shows like Babylon 5 (which I applaud for showing what space exploration will be like in perhaps a few decades once we've gotten the hang of building spacecraft with rotating gravity sections to avoid the problems that long stays in microgravity cause) to other grassroots groups that give more or less anonymously (that is, they don't get press coverage) to serious efforts.
And it also helps to give people like us the idea that we might eventually actually get to go to space ourselves. If someone can spend $20 million for a ride on a Soyuz capsule, and if a non-profit organization can launch a solar sail, then what could happen in fifty years?
This was, like Apollo 13, a "successful failure".
i am a soviet space shuttle
We take it as a loss and move on to try again. $4 million can be raised again and could be raised many times over for the amount of money spent on many other space related projects.
Something like solar sails, which can have an immediate return when demonstrated as a proof of concept, should have higher priority over things like missions to Mars, which can not only benefit from the solar sails, but which also provide a return much later. Giving it that type of priority, it could be ready in a couple of months.
In 400 years someone will be sitting on Mars sipping wine in a city and not even remember that a solar sail project in 2001 failed.
"Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart, he dreams himself your master."
Gah, the technology is already there, I worked on and did research for a thermonuclear propulsion project, pellet bed plutonium reactors (using WEAPONS grade plutonium no less) provide a wonderfully high impulse, with hydrogen as the moderator for the core (Bussard Ramjet anyone?). Unfortunately the fightback from the green groups have basically stoppped large scale projects like this in their tracks.......*sob*
This is perfectly alright and all, except what happens if we need to approach a star that has a higher strength solar wind than the one propelling the craft? It seems to me it wouldn't matter what color, etc., the reverse side was, you'd still get a pressure front pushing you away. Thus, wouldn't some stars be impossible to approach with this technology? Kinda like a one way ticket to the moon; you can get there rather elegantly, but you just can't come back using the solar sail. I realize that I'm not an expert, and perhaps someone can clarify.
I did see an article, I'm not sure whether it was a magazine article or on Slashdot (or both), about a similar idea and application being used as a method to get to the moon. In essence, you make a space craft with a mirror on the bottom. Then you construct a really friggin' powerful laser, aim it at the bottom of the spacesraft (the mirror), and off you go. Darwin award, anyone?To hope, though, there is my favorite engineering saying: It works in reality, but will it work in theory? Just my two cents.If the press notices at all, I'm sure we'll get to hear how much money was "wasted" on this failure. I wish people would accept that failures are part of learning. This is true of all aspects of human life. As long as they find and correct, and learn from, the problem, then nothing was wasted.