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Finnish Electric Solar Sail Nears Implementation

Posted by Soulskill on from the fly-me-to-the-moon dept.

eldavojohn writes "A recent meeting held by the Finnish Meteorological Institute has resulted in plans to build an electric solar sail that will circle the Earth, gaining speed to test its acceleration. The purpose? 'A flight out of the solar system to measure the gas, dust, plasma and magnetic field in the undisturbed interstellar space would perhaps be the "flagship" thing to do,' said Pekka Janhunen, a researcher developing the sail at the FMI. The details and papers of this project (over two years in the making) are also available. I certainly hope it will show more success than the launch of the similar U.S.-Russian venture and its subsequent complete failure."

7 of 66 comments (clear)

  1. Meta Tag? by clonan · · Score: 3, Funny

    For the article I am not sure it applies...

    Where is the fly-me-to-the-outer-system-to-collect-dust-and-gas tag?

    1. Re:Meta Tag? by eldavojohn · · Score: 3, Funny

      For the article I am not sure it applies... Where is the fly-me-to-the-outer-system-to-collect-dust-and-gas tag? Yeah but Frank Sinatra had a hard time working out the phrasing to "Fly Me to the Outer System to Collect Dust and Gas" so he had his writers rework it slightly. Although Count Basie liked the funky 10 syllables across four beats syncopation, Old Blue Eyes wouldn't bow to nobody ...
      --
      My work here is dung.
  2. Re:Not quite the same thing really by CRCulver · · Score: 3, Funny

    Is this some kind of Bussard ramjet then? I really love Larry Niven's Known Space stories (there's a great one about a ramjet chase in Neutron Star ) where ramjets serve for interstellar journeys, or Poul Anderson's Tau Zero. I wonder why ramjets aren't a big part of science fiction anymore. Even if they might not work in interstellar space, they seem to still have value inside the solar system, and this story looks like what people say a valid design would be.

  3. Sounds ambitious... by Saberwind · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...solar sail that will circle the Earth...

    That's one big sail.

  4. Re:They could pull it off. by Fear+the+Clam · · Score: 4, Funny

    I have known Finland and Finns for almost 10 years - though I don't know the specifics of this project, I have a strong faith in the finnish high-tech (did you know atomic layer deposition was developed in Finland? And then there's Nokia, and a lot of nanotech research, and their contribution to the ESA and...) plus Finns are quite pedantic, and I mean this in the best possible way. Part of Nokia's success is definitely down to this scholarly approach to technological projects.

    In other words, look at the bowl cut on that guy in the article. With hair like that he's got to be sporting some major brainage.

  5. Re:Not quite the same thing really by spazdor · · Score: 3, Funny

    "Solar sail" would be a ridiculous name for a device which tries to harness "solar wind" for propulsion. Try and come up with something a little more descriptive, alright?

    --
    DRM: Terminator crops for your mind!
  6. Re:Nearing implementation? by kybred · · Score: 4, Funny

    So, it's not Finnished yet??

    If it's nearly Finnished, does that make it Swedish?