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New York, 7:20 PM
Mon Dec 7
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    Dsmvwl  Admin  Promote to frontpage Approve user Ban user ×
    Image of HashMaster9000 HashMaster9000
    11/10/09

    In reply to New Spacecraft Uses Starlight to Propel its Sails
    Since when did NASA get it's Star Trek Deep Space 9 DVD's out of stoarge, and start looking to them for ideas? Is Sisko going to go to Cardassia in this thing? #solarwind
     Reply
    EBone promoted this comment HashMaster9000 was starred HashMaster9000 was unstarred
    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 supersixone supersixone
    11/10/09

    In reply to New Spacecraft Uses Starlight to Propel its Sails
     Reply
    BeyondtheTech promoted this comment supersixone was starred supersixone was unstarred
    Image of BeyondtheTech BeyondtheTech
    11/10/09

    @supersixone: "Solar winds will be caught by these mylar sails..." Just his way of explaining it was so lame, I wouldn't consider it. #solarwind
     Reply
    BeyondtheTech was starred BeyondtheTech 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 thecolor thecolor
    11/10/09

    In reply to New Spacecraft Uses Starlight to Propel its Sails
    must agree with @ Lite: hates Illinois Nazis on that, tron had it in the bag, what took so long?
     Reply
    thecolor was starred thecolor was unstarred
    Image of thecolor thecolor
    11/10/09

    @thecolor: WHOA, where did that "Nazis" come from? didn't see it in the cut and paste of "Lite's name. Sorry if any offense is taken. #solarwind
     Reply
    phunnyballs promoted this comment thecolor was starred thecolor was unstarred
    Image of phunnyballs phunnyballs
    11/10/09

    @thecolor: what a racist. :| #solarwind
     Reply
    phunnyballs was starred phunnyballs was unstarred
    Image of badhatharry badhatharry
    11/10/09

    @thecolor: It's from the Blues Brothers. The quote is "I hate Illinois Nazis." Lite is definitely not pro-Nazi. And I'm not offended. And I'm Jewish. #solarwind
     Reply
    badhatharry was starred badhatharry was unstarred
    Image of Lite: hates Illinois Nazis Lite: hates Illinois Nazis
    11/10/09

    @badhatharry: My wife is Jewish even. :)

    And it was a reference to the movie, but more a tribute to the actor who played the head nazi in Blues Brothers who died not too long ago. #solarwind
     Reply
    Lite: hates Illinois Nazis was starred Lite: hates Illinois Nazis was unstarred
    Image of K.P. K.P.
    11/10/09

    In reply to New Spacecraft Uses Starlight to Propel its Sails
    I remember first hearing about this maybe 5 or 6 years ago in university. I remember one of the things that was a big concern were the liabilities associated with the sail.

    Firstly, like they've said in the article, it would a LONG time for it to accelerate to any real kind of speed. Who knows whether or not we'd still be in contact with the ship at that point.

    The other major hurdle is the durability fo the sails. The sails have to be really thin and really big, which means they'd be highly susceptible to interstellar debris punching holes in it.

    It's a really a cool idea, but I'd be curious as to how they plan to deal with some of these things long term. #solarwind
     Reply
    chauncy that billups promoted this comment The Lab approved this comment K.P. was starred K.P. 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 FriarNurgle FriarNurgle
    11/10/09

    In reply to New Spacecraft Uses Starlight to Propel its Sails

    Sweet and then it can be folded up as a giant space Pteranodon. #solarwind
     Reply
    Hello Mister Walrus promoted this comment FriarNurgle was starred FriarNurgle was unstarred
    Image of Hello Mister Walrus Hello Mister Walrus
    11/10/09

    @FriarNurgle: Hmm... Do you have the instructions for this? #solarwind
     Reply
    Hello Mister Walrus was starred Hello Mister Walrus was unstarred
    Image of Gann Gann
    11/10/09


    @FriarNurgle: If this must be anthropomorphized, I'll take no less than Satoshi Kamiya's dragon. #solarwind
     Reply
    Gann was starred Gann was unstarred
    Image of FriarNurgle FriarNurgle
    11/10/09


    @Gann: I see your Satoshi Kamiya's dragon (very cool by the way) and raise you a Mega Maid. #solarwind
     Reply
    FriarNurgle was starred FriarNurgle was unstarred
    Image of Gann Gann
    11/10/09

    @FriarNurgle: Mega Maid Sucks. #solarwind
     Reply
    Gann was starred Gann was unstarred
    Image of FriarNurgle FriarNurgle
    11/10/09

    @Gann: Well played #solarwind
     Reply
    FriarNurgle was starred FriarNurgle was unstarred
    Image of Julien Castelli Julien Castelli
    11/10/09

    In reply to New Spacecraft Uses Starlight to Propel its Sails
    The closest star system is alpha centauri, at 4.37 light years from Sol. That 41.5 trillion Km, so if this 100 years ETA is accurate, it would be an average speed of 47,374,429.224 km/h or 13,159,563.6732 m/s.
    For comparison, the speed of light ("c") is 299,792,458m/s.
    So yeah, it's possible...

    The object would be traveling at 4.34% of the speed of light, though, I wonder if we're gonna see some time and space distortion at this speed... #solarwind
     Reply
    The Lab promoted this comment Julien Castelli was starred Julien Castelli 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
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