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Solar Sail Launch Date Set

Posted by timothy on from the good-luck-out-there dept.

smooth wombat writes "Get out your PDAs and set aside March 1, 2005. That is date the solar sail, named Cosmos 1, is set to be launched from a submerged Russian submarine in the Barents Sea. If the sail cannot be launched on that date the launch window extends to April 7. The goal of the mission is to be the first controlled solar-sail flight. The project is being undertaken by The Planetary Society, which was co-founded by Carl Sagan. Space.com also has a writeup about the launch. The announcement of the launch date coincided with Carl Sagan's birthday. Sagan would have been 70 years old. He served as President of The Planetary Society until his death in 1996."

2 of 27 comments (clear)

  1. Re:How controlled is controlled by madaxe42 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Tacking is, theoretically, possible, however consider the following:

    All the wind is coming from one central point.

    Your sail is *huge*, and not rigidly supported. In order to tack, you need to be able to hold a sail at 45 degrees to the wind, while holding your vessel pointing towards the wind, with a predisposition to move in that direction (supplied by the hull/daggerboard) which, while feasibly possible with a solar sail, would be an engineering feat, to say the very least.

  2. Only $4 million by UnapprovedThought · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The cnn article says:

    The mission, costing just under $4 million, will attempt the first controlled flight of a solar sail.

    Maybe this technology could be used someday to boost light satellites so they don't fall out of orbit? In any case the investment to find out sounds like it's well worth it.