Solar Sail News and Upcoming JPL Missions

abkaiser writes "I had the opportunity to interview a supervisor at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The JPL is putting together several missions utilizing solar sail technology. The interview and article detail where NASA and the JPL are in using solar sails for applications and research.You can read the article or skip ahead to the cool pictures of prototype and proposed solar sails. The article addresses NASA's JPL solar sail missions, but not other commercial or private projects like Cosmos 1."

Comments

Cosmos 1

[Tablizer]

The Planetary Society gathered private funds to launch the first solar sail probe: Cosmos-1. It was basically a proof of concept. However, the Russian launch system failed. One part of me was disappointed that a great scientific test failed, but the other says, "that is what you get for outsourcing to low-wage countries". I suppose I should get used to it. For good or bad, "free" trade is not going away anytime soon.

Re:Cosmos 1

[darkmeridian]

One part of me was disappointed that a great scientific test failed, but the other says, "that is what you get for outsourcing to low-wage countries".

Excuse me, but Russian expendable launch vehicles (ELVs) are at least on par with that of the United States' in terms of performance and reliability. But accidents in spaceflight still happen, on both sides of the pond. Misplaced jingoism really has no place in scientific exploration.

Sometimes I wonder if NASA is doing it right

[tempestdata]

Or if there is a better way. I know NASA is all about research and pushing forward the boundaries of science. But I think they are spreading themselves out too thin. Especially if you consider how little money they get.

I have noticed that when I take on too many part time coding projects, I get none of them done right. I have a limit amount of personal coding time (maybe 1 day a week total) and working 1 hour on each of my projects doesn't get me very far on any of them. I do them all half-assed or never even complete them.

This is what I see happening with NASA.

On the other hand, I can get a lot done if I just focus on 2 projects or 3 at the most. Focus all my free coding time and energy on the 2 or 3 that I have time to do. This way I actually do a good job on the few things I do pursue, and I actually finish up on them.

I think this is what gave NASA its early successes. They focused and pushed in specific directions.. that and they had a lot more money back then.

I wonder if NASA would be better to slim down and focus on two or three goals and and drop everything else. Put it on their todo list, but not actually work on it, till higher priority goals are met. They have a severe shortage of resources, and they aren't the most efficient at using them (being a government agency after all), they could slim down and use all their resources to accomplish a smaller set of goals.. but actually ACCOMPLISH them.. not just probe around in different random directions. This scattered approach is not letting them devote enough resources to actually finish anything.. and the projects that do finish, end up taking so long that the public looses interest.

For instance, if NASA took on a task similar to putting a man on the moon. Say.. putting a man on mars.. or putting a base on the moon. Pick one, and dedicate all their research towards it. I think something like this would excite the public more, and perhaps even get more funding. The public isn't as impressed when NASA says "Oh we've been prodding around at these 20 different technologies that may one day be feasible and we could one day use but they are atleast 20 years away from being usable." But if NASA said "we have accomplished 4 of the 25 goals we have set for putting a base on the moon, we are working on 5 more goals and we are hoping to have them done by the end of this year. If everything goes as planned we should have a base on the moon in 10 more years, construction could start as soon as 3 years from now"

Now THAT sounds exciting!

Re:Sometimes I wonder if NASA is doing it right

[DerekLyons]

I have noticed that when I take on too many part time coding projects, I get none of them done right. I have a limit amount of personal coding time (maybe 1 day a week total) and working 1 hour on each of my projects doesn't get me very far on any of them. I do them all half-assed or never even complete them. This is what I see happening with NASA.

On the other hand, I can get a lot done if I just focus on 2 projects or 3 at the most. Focus all my free coding time and energy on the 2 or 3 that I have time to do. This way I actually do a good job on the few things I do pursue, and I actually finish up on them.

The problem with that thesis is this; NASA is a large organization, you are an individual. You are comparing an apple to thousands of square miles of orange groves.

I think this is what gave NASA its early successes. They focused and pushed in specific directions.. that and they had a lot more money back then.

The problem with that thesis is this; NASA is no busier now than it was at any earlier period in it's history.

I wonder if NASA would be better to slim down and focus on two or three goals and and drop everything else. Put it on their todo list, but not actually work on it, till higher priority goals are met. They have a severe shortage of resources, and they aren't the most efficient at using them (being a government agency after all), they could slim down and use all their resources to accomplish a smaller set of goals..

The problem with that thesis is this; NASA doesn't have a fixed pool of resources they can allocate as they decide. Funding, and allocation, comes from Congress. If NASA cancels a project, then Congress just allocates the money elsewhere. (By rough calculation; $.75 on social spending, $.20 for the DoD and $.10 for everything else in the goverment for every dollar not spent by NASA.)

For instance, if NASA took on a task similar to putting a man on the moon. Say.. putting a man on mars.. or putting a base on the moon. Pick one, and dedicate all their research towards it. I think something like this would excite the public more, and perhaps even get more funding.

The problem with that thesis is this; for any given problem 'x', at *least* three quarters of NASA's existing personell and facilities are completely unsuitable for providing any meaningful assistance to that problem.

Here is a plan.

[AoT]

I was reading about a few things lately, like the coming peak oil and the fact that we do not have enough resource on earth to support the way we live. So I figured, fuck earth. Let's go. Give me your thoughts on the plan. I realize that much of this is contingent upon political impossibilities and scientific possibilities; but I think we need to start somewhere. I also realize that there are parts of the technology herein that may turn out to be unfeasable. That is an inevitability.

Note: this is a rough draft, obviously, and I hope that others more knowledgable than me can make corrections where applicable.

Plan for Mass Space Colonization

I)Funding
    1.Cut military funding in half.
        a.~210B a year
        b.Withdraw all troops stationed outside of US
        c.Stop all non space military research
2.Cut all Agricultural Subsidies
    a.unknown monetary savings, considered significant.
3.Taxes
    a.raise taxes on highest tax brackets and corporations
        1.increase revenues by up to 50B
        2.those affected are also the biggest benificiaries of research and
            construction contracts.
II)Internationalizaion
    1.US offers cooperation with all nations who express interest
    2.cooperative funding methods utilized to maximize returns
    3.cooperative science research to maximize returns
III)Energy
    1.outlaw personal consumtion of petroleum products
    2.encourage local production of food and products
    3.increase public transportation with an express intent to transfer knowledge
        and methods learned to colonial situation
    4.possibly oulaw powered personal vehicles
IV)Science
    1.internationalizaion of research (see II)
    2.complete open sourcing of all types of research
    3.heavy emphasis on practical space and foreign world technology.
V)First ten years
    1.Vast majority of funding goes to research
    2.heavy emphasis on getting off planet
        a.large scale exodus
        b.best choice: space elevator
VI)second 10 years
    1.split funding between research on construction of exodus devices
    2.construct space elevators, orbital platforms
    3.research emphasis on non-terrestrial colonies, I.E. Space stations
VII)third ten years
    1.beginning of small scale non earth orbit colonies
    2.minimal construction of exodus devices
    3.construction of orbital platforms and "arc" ships
    4.heavy research on ground based hostile terrain colonies
VIII)final ten years
    1.Full constuction of non earth orbital colonies
    2.to be tranfered slowly to ground based colonies