Finnish Electric Solar Sail Nears Implementation

Posted by Soulskill on Wednesday April 23, 2008 @06:51AM 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."

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weird by Anonymous Coward · 2008-04-23 07:00 · Score: 0, Offtopic

This is a pretty crazy story, I would want to invest in this.
One small step... by ravensee · 2008-04-23 08:52 · Score: 0, Offtopic

for man, one giant leap for ye pirates. Yarrrr.
Obligatory... by my_left_nut · 2008-04-23 08:55 · Score: 0, Offtopic

... "But does it run linux?"
Larry Niven is... by vorlich · 2008-04-23 11:44 · Score: 0, Offtopic

God.

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