Last year the counter was so far behind that people were fooled into buying songs long after the possibility to win was actually there. They had contacted the winner, given him his prize, and gotten pictures of him w/ it days before their webpage counter hit its target.
Acceleration = (2*Intensity*Area of the sails)/(speed of light * mass)
The intensity of sunlight at earth's orbit is 1400.0 Wm^-2
If anyone can find the weight and size of the sails it should give you a pretty good estimate on how fast this thing is gonna go (ignoring effects due to orbital motion).
Slashdot Mirror
Last year the counter was so far behind that people were fooled into buying songs long after the possibility to win was actually there. They had contacted the winner, given him his prize, and gotten pictures of him w/ it days before their webpage counter hit its target.
Acceleration = (2*Intensity*Area of the sails)/(speed of light * mass) The intensity of sunlight at earth's orbit is 1400.0 Wm^-2 If anyone can find the weight and size of the sails it should give you a pretty good estimate on how fast this thing is gonna go (ignoring effects due to orbital motion).