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New York, 12:12 PM
Mon Nov 16
16 posts in the last 24 hours

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  • posts about #solarwind more →

    New Spacecraft Uses Starlight to Propel its Sails

    IBEX Launches Today on Man's Most Depressing Space Mission Ever

    Spiderweb Solar-Wind Sail Proves Jor-El Was Right
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    Dsmvwl  Admin  Promote to frontpage Approve user Ban user ×
    Image of Evangelion Evangelion
    11/10/09

    In reply to New Spacecraft Uses Starlight to Propel its Sails
    Ramiel? O_o #solarwind
     Reply
    Evangelion was starred Evangelion was unstarred
    Image of Quilt Quilt
    11/10/09

    In reply to New Spacecraft Uses Starlight to Propel its Sails
    Wasn't there a Deep Space Nine episode about this kind of thing? #solarwind
     Reply
    Quilt was starred Quilt was unstarred
    Image of Xagest Xagest
    11/10/09

    In reply to New Spacecraft Uses Starlight to Propel its Sails
    Isn't this kinda one way? You can only move away from the sun, right? #solarwind
     Reply
    Xagest was starred Xagest was unstarred
    Image of AmishJohn AmishJohn
    11/10/09

    @Xagest: You can tack, like a sailboat. Dr. Forward came up with a decelleration method in his Rocheworld books. #solarwind
     Reply
    AmishJohn was starred AmishJohn was unstarred
    Image of Lite: hates Illinois Nazis Lite: hates Illinois Nazis
    11/10/09

    @Xagest: Not really. You can use the gravitational fields of planets to alter your trajectory, slow down, speed up, etc.

    All you need is the appropriate insulation material between such as a ballute for aerobraking at super/hypersonic speeds.

    I don't know if tacking would work so much. However it would allow you to save the fuel you'd normally have used for acceleration on the downstream trip for the return trip. Just drop the sails.

    Or, you could go with an ion propulsion drive for the return trip. #solarwind
     Reply
    Lite: hates Illinois Nazis was starred Lite: hates Illinois Nazis was unstarred
    Image of vapour vapour
    11/10/09

    @Lite: hates Illinois Nazis:

    one thing to remember though:

    You come out of the new trajectory with the same amount of kinetic energy (or less) then what you began with. #solarwind
     Reply
    Lite: hates Illinois Nazis promoted this comment vapour was starred vapour was unstarred
    Image of Lite: hates Illinois Nazis Lite: hates Illinois Nazis
    11/10/09

    @vapour: Actually you can use a planet's gravitational pull to accelerate. We've done it with exploration satellites. #solarwind
     Reply
    Lite: hates Illinois Nazis was starred Lite: hates Illinois Nazis was unstarred
    Image of Dnyde Dnyde
    11/10/09

    @Lite: hates Illinois Nazis: What about incoming photons from other sources? #solarwind
     Reply
    Lite: hates Illinois Nazis promoted this comment Dnyde was starred Dnyde was unstarred
    Image of Lite: hates Illinois Nazis Lite: hates Illinois Nazis
    11/10/09

    @Dnyde: Likely not going to have as much force as the ones coming from a sun to be quiet honest. And, you can drop the sail to streamline your profile against that. Yes, you will bleed some velocity, but not as much as you would with the sail. #solarwind
     Reply
    Lite: hates Illinois Nazis was starred Lite: hates Illinois Nazis was unstarred
    Image of vapour vapour
    11/10/09

    @Lite: hates Illinois Nazis:

    You cannot actually gain energy that way, your exit energy must be the same as your entering energy to maintain the law of conservation of energy.

    Unless you are thinking of entering a state of satellite motion, in which the satellite is experiencing an elliptical (or semi- circular) trajectory that is constantly accelerating towards the centre of rotation. Even in this motion, energy is needed to maintain orbit as the satellite loses energy over time and will eventually enter a 'death-spiral' trajectory (especially around planets with thick atmospheres like earth).

    It depends what frame of reference you are using :)

    Wikipedia has a nice article:

    [en.wikipedia.org] #solarwind
     Reply
    vapour was starred vapour was unstarred
    Image of badhatharry badhatharry
    11/10/09

    In reply to New Spacecraft Uses Starlight to Propel its Sails
    Hey, Ellison, I know where you can get another 10 million dollar mast.
     Reply
    Edited by badhatharry at 11/10/09 11:56 AM badhatharry was starred badhatharry was unstarred
    Image of Digo Digo
    11/10/09

    In reply to New Spacecraft Uses Starlight to Propel its Sails
    Awesome, now that we're going to be sailing in space maybe Brazil will finally be a player in the space race =P #solarwind
     Reply
    Digo was starred Digo was unstarred
    Image of Hello Mister Walrus Hello Mister Walrus
    11/10/09

    In reply to New Spacecraft Uses Starlight to Propel its Sails
    Didn't Count Dooku have one of these? #solarwind
     Reply
    Hello Mister Walrus was starred Hello Mister Walrus was unstarred
    Image of Curves Curves
    11/10/09

    In reply to New Spacecraft Uses Starlight to Propel its Sails
    Funny how the oldest ideas keep returning. A new kind of sailing, but sailing to be sure! #solarwind
     Reply
    Curves was starred Curves was unstarred
    Image of Lite: hates Illinois Nazis Lite: hates Illinois Nazis
    11/10/09

    In reply to New Spacecraft Uses Starlight to Propel its Sails
    I'm happy to see they are finally implementing an actual device using this, but let's be honest here. Even Tron contained a model involving a solar sailer. #solarwind
     Reply
    Lite: hates Illinois Nazis was starred Lite: hates Illinois Nazis was unstarred
    Image of Lite: hates Illinois Nazis Lite: hates Illinois Nazis
    11/10/09

    @Lite: hates Illinois Nazis: Speaking of which, any mention in this article about how they plan to deal with the grid bugs? #solarwind
     Reply
    Lite: hates Illinois Nazis was starred Lite: hates Illinois Nazis was unstarred
    Image of Dr Durdon Dr Durdon
    11/10/09

    In reply to New Spacecraft Uses Starlight to Propel its Sails
    Solar winds will be caught by these mylar sails!Come on people, we need something realistic here! We've got 18 days! #solarwind
     Reply
    Edited by Dr Durdon at 11/10/09 11:02 AM Dr Durdon was starred Dr Durdon was unstarred
    Image of Kaiser-Machead Kaiser-Machead
    11/10/09

    @Dr Durdon: That movie's stinkocity factor is still powerful even today. #solarwind
     Reply
    Kaiser-Machead was starred Kaiser-Machead was unstarred
    Image of Dr Durdon Dr Durdon
    11/10/09

    @Kaiser-Machead: you mean stinkAWESOME! #solarwind
     Reply
    Dr Durdon was starred Dr Durdon was unstarred
    Image of Kaiser-Machead Kaiser-Machead
    11/10/09

    @Dr Durdon: Armageddon was Michael Bay's art piece. The asteroid represented feces, and the pieces of the asteroid that destroyed parts of the earth represents Michael Bay shitting on everyone. #solarwind
     Reply
    Kaiser-Machead was starred Kaiser-Machead was unstarred
    Image of N@tedog N@tedog
    11/10/09

    In reply to New Spacecraft Uses Starlight to Propel its Sails
    Is there a light parachute for stopping the thing once you get to the next star system? #solarwind
     Reply
    N@tedog was starred N@tedog was unstarred
    Image of exoren22 exoren22
    11/10/09

    @N@tedog: yeah, it's called turning around. #solarwind
     Reply
    N@tedog promoted this comment exoren22 was starred exoren22 was unstarred
    Image of QuidiVidi QuidiVidi
    11/10/09

    @N@tedog: I think the same sails will be used on arrival. #solarwind
     Reply
    N@tedog promoted this comment QuidiVidi was starred QuidiVidi was unstarred
    Image of N@tedog N@tedog
    11/10/09

    @exoren22: Actually, yeah that would do it wouldn't it? The craft would constantly accelerate away from our star until the solar wind from the destination star was greater than that of the sun's where it would turn around and constantly decelerate until it cruised casually into the new solar system, snap a few candids and then crack the whip for a return trip. #solarwind
     Reply
    N@tedog was starred N@tedog was unstarred
    Image of Kaiser-Machead Kaiser-Machead
    11/10/09

    In reply to New Spacecraft Uses Starlight to Propel its Sails
    I always wondered how the hell Count Dooku was able to zip between planets in his solar sailing ship. #solarwind
     Reply
    Kaiser-Machead was starred Kaiser-Machead was unstarred
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