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Solar Sail to be Launched This Year

Posted by timothy on from the not-to-the-moon-alice dept.

mad_goldfish writes: "Spaceflight Now is reporting that the Russians are preparing a Solar Sail for launch sometime after September aboard a Cosmos 1 rocket. Apparently most of the components have now been tested and they are getting ready to integrate all the flight components. Just the camera, S-band radio and main computer are yet to be completed."

3 of 161 comments (clear)

  1. I wish them luck by jhines0042 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You know what, I first heard of this and I thought, "Geez, America is getting behind in the Space Race", but you know what? I wish them the best of luck because ultimately the quest for Space Knowledge with benefit the whole planet.

    Good Luck!

    --
    42 - So long and thanks for all the fish.
    1. Re:I wish them luck by ch-chuck · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Well, the US started out behind, and IS losing Edge. Was thinking how to phrase it, but the Russians appear more willing to take risks (you know, in science, EXPERIMENT and risk failure but learn something anyway?) - w/ NASA's ever shrinking budget and risk aversion due to sensitivity to public criticism it sometimes seems like they can't try out anything (like space tourism) w/o knowing before hand that it's going to be successful. The typical US attitude to almost anything these days is how the lawyers are going to react and who is liable for damages; slowly turning into paralysis thru analysis, unable to accomplish anything.

      --
      try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
  2. Great books on Mars Colonization by laetus · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Kim Stanley Robinson wrote some kickbutt books on the whole colonization of Mars:

    Red Mars

    Green Mars

    Blue Mars


    I found Red Mars to be the best, followed by Green Mars. These two gave the best presentation of what it would be really like to colonize Mars that I've ever read. Cool books.

    --

    "We're sorry, but the website you're trying to reach has been disconnected."