The Flight of the Solar Sail

N3wsByt3 writes "After months of uncertainty, the final verdict has fallen: The Planetary Society has reveiled that it will launch its Cosmos 1 on June 21. Cosmos 1 will be the first non-governmental spaceship that makes use of solar sails as main propulsion mechanism - it is pushed along by light particles from the Sun, instead of bringing its fuel along for the ride - which makes this a unique experiment in more then one way." This was supposed to have happened already, so here's hoping things get off the ground this time.

Comments

Uhm

[Mr_Icon]

"reveiled:" is that like the opposite of "unveiled?" So, are you saying that they have tried to cover up the news? And if so, then how are we finding out? Or is it from the French "reveil:" the awakening. Did they wake up to the news? Is that why they tried to cover it up?

So confused.

This seems silly

[Albinofrenchy]

Honestly the idea that because it doesn't carry fuel makes it easy to 'travel to the stars' is kinda stupid. For one thing, almost by definition you can't travel towards a star on this thing because as you approach it, it will start to slow down, and eventually stop.

The idea of using the suns energy is good, but maybe they should find a way to harness that energy so one could move the direction one pleases.

Re:This seems silly

[spune]

The sail ideally will reach 0.1c exiting the solar system. After that point, the sail does ditttysquat and can be removed from the craft the sail is bearing. Combining solar sails with conventional space manuvering systems isn't all that difficult; this would allow all the steering one would like.

As the sail would approach another star, the sail would slow if both sides of the sail were mirrored. This would merely mean that were we traveling to another star, we could actually stop rather than keep on going. Doesn't that kinda sound handy at all?

Re:This seems silly

[rsynnott]

Actually, that's one of the nice things about it. Assuming the other star has the same solar wind as the original (which it probably won't) your spacecraft may actually come to a complete halt at the other star, which is what you want. A classic problem with interstellar travel is that not only do you need to carry fuel to accellerate you towards the objective, but to slow you once you get there as well.

Re:This seems silly

[simcop2387]

whoops i foobard the link, here it is again

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sailing#Running_Downw ind

Re:This seems silly

[RichardX]

For one thing, almost by definition you can't travel towards a star on this thing because as you approach it, it will start to slow down, and eventually stop.

From the Planetary.org solar sail FAQ

9 . Can a solar sail only provide thrust away from the sun?

No, thrust can be generated inward or outward with respect to the sun. By turning the sail at different angles, we can add or subtract velocity to the spacecraft. When we add velocity, the sail flies away from the Sun. When we subtract velocity, its orbit spirals inward.

Re:The Google Slashdot effect (and solar sails)

[spune]

planetary.org is the Planetary Society, the people who are, you know, launching the sail. As the sail the Society is launching will be the first solar sail, you won't find any government solar sails.

Re:As opposed to...

[BlackStar]

Perhaps if you actually looked into it rather than knee-jerk looking to prove it wrong, you'd find that Cosmos-1 is ONLY powered by the solar sails after orbit insertion. No hydrazine corrective thrusters, no other propellant capabilities. The tips on the Mariner series aided in studying the solar wind environment, but they did not assist in propulsion or stabilization to any measurable extent.

This is the first spacecraft propelled completely by solar wind.

Tacking

[Beryllium Sphere(tm)]

You could use a solar sail to go from Earth to Mercury if you wanted.

Angle it so that thrust is opposite the orbital motion of the earth. You slow down relative to the sun. You fall to a lower orbit. Nifty, huh?

If you're really in a hurry to slow down you detach a reflector, let it fly in front of you, and have a planet-based launching laser fire at the reflector, bounce back to you and slow you down.

Short answer: a few days

[mangu]

how long would it take the solar sails to reach the edge

A solar sail could, theoretically, pass the Voyagers in less than a week. That's the advantage of having continuous thrust along the way, rather than one impulse at the start and then coasting as the Voyagers did.

The Voyagers are now at a distance of about 13 light-hours from the sun. A thin and lightweight solar sail would quickly accelerate to almost the speed of light, so it's possible to cover that distance in a few days at most.

Re:Short answer: a few days

[david.given]

what would be REALLY effective is Ramjets

Alas, ramjets don't work in Sol's part of the galaxy --- the interstellar medium's not right. (I don't know the details, but I believe that you can't get enough thrust from a certain collector area to overcome the drag needed by your collector.)

And you're quite right, it takes about a year's worth of 1g acceleration to reach relativistic velocities. Which is why Starwisp, the closest thing we've got to a decent design for an interstellar probe, will accelerate at 115g.

The entire probe only weighs 16 grams. It is, in effect, a microwave-frequency light sail, a kilometre across, powered by a 10 gigawatt maser based in Earth orbit; the maser provides both propulsion and power for the probe to return data once it reaches its target.

Starwisps should be mass producable, and only require a few days of thrust to launch, so you could use one maser to power practically any number of them. Since they cruise at 0.2c, we might also end up getting data back within our lifetimes...

Long answer: a few years.

[ciroknight]

The problem with the parent's post is the sail itself. Our solar system is a rocky and dangerous space, and so far, we have no idea what the area outside of it is like either.

The sail would quickly break apart as it gets struck by all kinds of space debris, some left by us, others by more natural occurances. Thus, for an effective craft, multiple sails would be kept on board, being deployed stratigically when the previous sails are no longer providing maximal thrust, and when the coast is clear.

Next, between those times when the sails are not up, the ship will probably want to keep thrust, so it will have to carry onboard some propellant to keep its thrust up during the times it is without sails. Thus, the ship will lose a significant portion of weight during its travel.

Lastly, unless we align everything like we did with the Voyager launches, gravity will not be so forth coming for this space craft. This will probably mean multiple near-sun passes to build up the speed nessicary to exit the solar system and continue on to the next star. This means some clever routing by computer simulations, along with a computer figuring when to discard and open new sails along the way.

Not only will all of this cost a lot, it will likely make it take much longer to get out of the solar system. Lucky for us, as we can pile on the goodies like cameras, radio antenna, and do some exploration as it passes through the planets building up gravitational accelleration.