NASA Unfurls Solar Sail

[wojack1000]

That is cool. You know somebody will eventually have something that looks like a boat sailing through space.lol

[InitialDAmine]

didn't JAXA send a real sail satelitte?

[Keruaran]

@InitialDAmine Yes, its called IKAROS.

[SgtLulz]

You are now thinking about Treasure Planet.

[ImmortalUniverse]

can indirect sunlight trow it out of course i wonder .

like the reflection of the moon surface or earth.

or can other stars further away influence the craft direction?

something tells me that thing will never speedup and get lost.

or is that a silly thought.

[Isuckatpaintball2]

pirate ships in space? hell yea

[garuga0777]

4 boobs?

[jeremiahdadomb]

im not smart but but that sail looks super thin and supposedly goes hella fast right well arent their tiny rocks in space that would rip holes and maybe even destroy a sail or if a rock is lucky and hits one of those metal bars take out two sails let alone destroy the ship it self? i mean a rock doesnt have to move it could just be there and the speed of the ship could caause the rock to pass through it. but like i said im not smart so idk if ppl have already thought of this

[PinkProgram]

@jeremiahdadomb super thin does not always mean super fragile.

[DKyousai]

Does this use the same principles as JAXA's IKAROS?

[TTHEmre]

This is all very good n' all but what sort of sq ft of sail would you need to move say 1kg through space........  is it really possible if your carrying all the equipment you need to make a deep space exploration worth while

[lithiumdeuteride]

Low orbit Earth? They should get a better, less dyslexic narrator. It's 'low Earth orbit'.

[erdgv]

Very cool. Theoretically solar sail crafts can reach speeds of 20% speed of light, if given enough size and area. Really like to see a big ones being deploy and catch up with voyager..

[Blaze200038]

Eh, that'd be nice until it left the solar system. Hasn't got much to do without a star behind it.

[AaronTheDino]

In space you don't lose speed in space, expect from gravitational pulls. The satellite would be far enough away from them that it wouldn't make much of a difference. It could keep going on even if there was no stars close to it.

If there were no objects in space except one it could travel forever.

[whitleymusic]

You should be working at NASA. I'm not kidding.

[Dapperjon002]

theoretically speaking, we could pinpoint the craft from places on earth with light beams to propel it. Even better would be a light beam stationed on the moon.

[bassface17]

@Blaze200038 I would be really happy if we could make it nearway out the solar system atall. Way further than anything else we already have.

[InitialDAmine]

@erdgv the issue would micro meteorites and debri i doubt such a sail could wistand just the tiny bit of an impact

[erdgv]

just passing through..........

[Taricus]

On 2nd thought.... Why do they not even consider a solar sail to go TO Mars in whatever year they have it planned. (I forget) and then use a chem rocket to come back? That would lower the mass of the whole mission to begin with (which is a problem.... more mass = more fuel = more cost)

[piper2000ca]

They have thought of using a solar sail for Mars, the biggest problem is that it would end up take much much longer to get there and back, meaning more supplies would be needed. The net result is a spacecraft that is just as heavy as a conventional one, more expensive, and more dangerous (since it is in space longer).

[Taricus]

I was a lil drunk when I said the last comment LOL

You have a point, tho. Also, solar sails accelerate VERY slowly; and, missions to Mars only have a small window to operate. Unless we plan ahead for more years in space, sails suck LOL

--and ur right... Less time in space is better for our astronauts :P less environmental hazards are always a good thing LOL God, I sound like a nerd, right now! hahaha!

[Lightcycle]

while sails wouldnt be practical for a manned mission it would be more useful or reasonable for unmanned missions such as either probes or sending equipment ahead of a manned mission.

[SailorBarsoom]

How about laser-pushed lightsails? I can imagine a a dozen or so 10 Kw lasers in Earth orbit adding their focused light to the light from the sun.

Of course, they could have HUGE solar collectors and...

For a time after launch costs come down, I guess.

[Lightcycle]

I don't know- it would depend at ohw much difference that would make. It mainly hinges on how long you are willing to be in sapce and exposed to the dangers of space with the use of solar sails it's just too long at the moment and I don't know how much using powerful lasers from earth could cut it (the travel time) down.

I've seen it proposed before tho so there's some merit to the idea.

[Taricus]

I do have to say that I would spend my entire life in space tho... And that'z a completely unbased drunken thought... but I'm so feelin it LOL! barring the last couple months where I've been traveling around and being social, i've gone thru a quiet period of my life and the small space of being in a ship wouldn't bother me much..... as long as they roomed me with hot people and gave me good video games LOL!

[Lightcycle]

Hehe I'd sign up with ya ^.^

[Taricus]

Seriously, with the ANSARI cup and the dependability with NASA lately (think 2 mars rovers that are FAR outlasting their intended life-span), it is looking very favorable that we will be looking awesome very soon. :P Watching Paris Hilton floating around with her dog and bitching about the difficulty of puttin' on make-up in Zero-G is not far off.... LOL j/k!!!! hahahah!

[zezima48]

maybe they dont have to use chemical rocket to get back, because they could put lasers on mars moons and then use them to propel the solar sail back to earth

[Taricus]

That's a great thought. I thought of that.... Prob is that someone has to set that up first before we go. That'z even more billions of dollars to waste before anything gets done....

[Taricus]

At this point, I would so be willing to do a Real World style reality t.v. show JUST to be able to have the opportunity to see another planet and really just experience more than what this world has to offer. I'm so ready to start planet hopping already....

[zezima48]

what if they put a laser ON the solar sail spacecraft and propel it?

p.s : if the craft goes fast, wont the gravity kill the crew? or can they put hutchitson effect in the craft to stop g forces?

p.s.s: they dont need human beings to asseble the laser on mars moons, it could be done by robots.

please reply back.

[theinsane102]

Robert Forward proposed useing a laser, the laser would use 23,000,000,000,000 gigawatts of power.

[nateextreme0969]

@Taricus its a great idea but the flaw is simple enough that the solar sails we have now cant propel a craft of that weight. the sails would have to be massive and plus mars is to close in away solar sails gain speed by small amounts of thrust be asserted with no friction which allows it to gain more and more speed if ur shooting for jupiter and beyond it would make more sence but the amount of thrust you gain for going towards mars wouldnt really be enoough to out preform a chemical rocket.

[Taricus]

lol I can't decide whether the solar sail idea is a wasted tech or not.... It can't come back O_o LOL

Sure it'z cheap..... Maybe it'z the bottle rocket kinda entertainment of the future....

[SailorBarsoom]

It can come back. All it has to do is slow it's orbit about the sun, and it'll FALL back towards the sun.

[Ullbora]

That's pretty cool.

[MassZombicide]

Awesome