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NASA to Launch Solar Sail

Posted by timothy on from the cue-bad-brains dept.

arbitraryaardvark writes "Physorg reports that NASA will launch a solar sail around the end of July. It'll be the first of its kind; a previous attempt blew up. It's a small proof-of-concept gizmo, not a full-on spaceyacht. Solar sails operate on photon pressure from sunlight. They are well known to science fiction readers, otherwise not so much." C-net has coverage, too.

1 of 147 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Ah, sigh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "Yeah well, Hollywood and {science, art, engineering, law, philosophy, history, fantasy, ...} haven't ever mixed well, for the most part."

    There. Fixed it for you.

    I'll give you a hint. Hollywood is like a marketing department at an engineering firm. They have learned very well that they don't need to understand the product to sell it. Package a movie with a couple of hunks and babes as well as some explosions and dramatic music, and nobody is going to care about its accuracy.