The solar blade solar sail

Heliogyro type solar sail which gives fuel free propulsion based on refelctive solar pressure (This project is no longer live but still interesting stuff). Video source and more info- http://www.frc.ri.cmu.edu/projects/blade/index2.html

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• solar
• sail
• exploration
• space
• travel

[nateextreme0969]

i think that if cosmos 1 got into orbit it would of spead up solar sail idea and maybe get one heading towards proxima centauri soon but interstellar space is the Q without a star to project light solar sail will die down so you almost need to mix the magentic sails with this and another to even getting a shot at proxima. But i think its a wonderful idea and should be looked into more but unfortunately space aint "important" to some so we stay on our planet destroying each other

[Rahavin1]

@r0ck3tsm0k3 ya, I guess... but its gonna happen someday, I think. The sooner the better.

As a person who studied philosophy and english at uni, I say the following:

1: Go science!

2: Space makes for good reading

3: development into space is inevitable (just so long as Dr Strangelove never gets the bomb)

so, the solar sail would rely on cosmic extrasolar wind? how much is really floating around between stars? could it be accelerated by an onboard light energy system positioned behind the sails?

[r0ck3tsm0k3]

@Rahavin1 There are many different types of sail and many different trips. Without any beamed energy from the Earth, that is just getting a boost via a very close dip towards the sun, the trip time will be several thousand years. With beamed energy and increasingly extreme technology (100 KM lenses, tW lasers, etc) the trip could be taken down to say 10 percent the speed of light, or about 100 years for a mission. For now, you are better off investing in telescopes than visiting other stars.

[Rahavin1]

So how long would it take for a solar said to get to a few select nearby starts? Alpha Centari?

[flamesholder]

I just thought that you could build a solar light optically pumped laser and a smaller and more robust solar sail riding the beam of the laser. There are dozens of papers on ieee Xplore about solar pumped lasers and the concept is feasible. Geoffrey Landis has researched this topic while at NASA and it seems feasible. We just need will power to implement it. In general shortage of willpower is the biggest problem in space exploration.

[SailorBarsoom]

Cool. The sooner the better.

Of course, I still wanna hit it with a few megawatts of laser, just to give it some serious acceleration.

[Jaahja]

Haha.. That´s crazy.. but it´s true.. *sigh*

Nasa is filled with old conservative senile "gubbstruttar"!

[nzphlik]

geeeoff16 is right.

answer to akulax2, think of light as a bullet hitting a car (this car is so strong, bullet cannot go through like a tank, car is also frictionless), bullet bounces off, the car moves i tiny bit. shoot it many more times, the car will move faster. thats your concept.

[geeeoff16]

spinning the s/c allows the strips of solar sail to unfurl without the need for any mechanical or electrical deployment mechanism. i suppose it would also help with stability of the s/c as well

[landofdreams]

because they think it is 'too risky' to invest in new methods and insist on using 1950s chemical rocket technology.