'Solar sail' spacecraft to launch in 2010


Science | 206650 hits | Nov 11 5:56 pm | Posted by: Hyack
3 Comment

LOS ANGELES - Four years after its first solar sail ended up in the ocean instead of orbit, The Planetary Society announced Monday that by the end of 2010 it will try again to launch a spacecraft that will be propelled by the subtle pressure of sunlight.

Comments

  1. by avatar GreenTiger
    Thu Nov 12, 2009 1:43 pm
    A 100% efficient spaxwcraft thats neet.

  2. by avatar tritium
    Thu Nov 12, 2009 3:26 pm
    How do you steer that thing away from planets that have high gravitational pull.

    By the sound of it, its first mission failed and was pulled back to earth.

  3. by avatar FFed
    Thu Nov 12, 2009 9:58 pm
    As a long time member of the Planetary Society, some of my cash has gone into this project. It is great to see if finally ready to go. The first launch did not fail because it was forced back to Earth because of Earths gravity, it failed due to rocket failure. A scheduled burn never occurred so it never reached orbit. Once it is underway, you can use the gravity from larger planets to increase speed like they do with other space probes. However I do not know if they will do that with the solar sail.



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