Cosmos Solar Sail Getting Close To Launch

digitalcaffeine writes "The Guardian is reporting that US and Russian scientists are planning to launch a spacecraft that will use solar sails to move about in space. This venture, called Cosmos 1, is backed by the Planetary Society and Cosmos Studios. The spacecraft, finally due for launch in late 2004 or early 2005, will use a converted SS-N-18 submarine launched ballistic missile fired from beneath the Barents Sea to get it into a 800 x 1000 km elliptical orbit. It will then unfurl its 15m sails and start moving about. So, for all the governments that have been working on a similar project, the first solar-sailed spacecraft is going to be from a private venture." An update on the official site notes that "The world's first solar sail craft is nearing completion. All electronic systems are now flight qualified and were delivered to the spacecraft for final assembly and testing" - we previously reported on the Cosmos Project and the efficacy of solar sails.

Comments

World's First?

[greypilgrim]

Wait, how is this the world's first solar sail powered craft? So I guess http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/08/0 9/2259214 never happened? Maybe what the article meant to say was that it is the first solar sail powered craft to orbit the earth?

Re:Wind gusts

[DonGar]

There are no breaks, but you CAN use it to manuver in any direction that is not 'up wind'.

However it's not as flexible as standard sailboat because there is no sideways resistance to push against (normally proviced by the hull and keel pushing against water). Otherwise it would be able to sail 'up wind' the same way that sail boats can.

I have seen some strange schemes proposed that would allow solar sails to be used to accelerate towards their light source, by dropping a larger sail that reflected light back (as it was accelerating away). See Robert Forward's book 'Dragonfly' for details.