Solar Sailing Begins to Become Reality

[Sodah]

lets go sailin brah~

[editline]09:52PM[/editline]

[QUOTE=Craptasket;18321474]Think of the maintenance, you think you can keep large sails together without dust partials and/or meteorites from bombarding it in space?[/QUOTE]

u know that space area to meteorites is like way off right and windshield wipers would clean the dust

[JaffaOrange]

[QUOTE=KorJax;18320666]I didn't like treasure planet all that much because the story was pretty much a cheesy copy-paste directly from Treasure Island, but it was interesting.
[/QUOTE]

But Disney always rips off it's stories from other places. The only creativity they employ is how to make everything kid friendly.

[Virtanen]

[QUOTE=DarkendSky;18320105]I remember asking my dad what that was supposed to be when I was little and watched that movie, and he simply replied "Solar sails".

Now I'm all HOLY SHIT THEY'RE REAL.[/QUOTE]

You were little when Attack of the clones came out?

Weak.

[Luxo]

Awesome! :science:

[Saxon]

I remember when Bill Nye bought an ICBM to do this. It failed by saying he bought an ICBM is always funny

[KrAzY_nikomo]

Problem with a ship would be that you'd need a spacesuit to walk on the deck, unless we come up with something to encapsule air, mayby something like the ship shields in Stargate, but operating at low energy levels, blocking air from leaving instead of blocking projectiles and shit from entering.

[Joey Skylynx]

"Man the plasma cannons lads'!"

Hehe I can see space pirates with a lot of big boomy guns attacking satellites and holding astronauts hostage.

Also... Am I the only one who thinks this will revert us back to a Victorian steampunk age?

[Waals Vander]

[QUOTE=KrAzY_nikomo;18333944]Problem with a ship would be that you'd need a spacesuit to walk on the deck, unless we come up with something to encapsule air, mayby something like the ship shields in Stargate, but operating at low energy levels, blocking air from leaving instead of blocking projectiles and shit from entering.[/QUOTE]

im p sure its not going to look like a 19th century pirate ship.

[Used Car Salesm]

[QUOTE=KorJax;18320666]I didn't like treasure planet all that much because the story was pretty much a cheesy copy-paste directly from Treasure Island, but it was interesting.

I don't see how this would be viable though as a main form of space travel.

Once you get far away from the sun the sails I assume wouldn't work anymore, and it sounds like it would be a bitch to maintain.

Also, it sounds like this will be an increadibly slow form of travel as well. Maybe a good concept for probes to have "infinite fuel" and be sent into deep space, but that's about it. And maybe having a rocket engine-based ship have this as a back-up fuel source and/or stabilizing system to allow a ship to hover in space by using the sails.

Certainly good things to have, but nothing utterally revolutionary in the way we might travel through space.[/QUOTE]

The thing is, it's like an ion engine: The actual thrust is pretty low, but it's constant, all the time. So, you can reach pretty high speeds over time, with no propellant use at all.

[:smug:]

[QUOTE=BricknHead;18320296]treasure planet was incredible[/QUOTE]

Incredible isn't the right word for it. I loved that film :downs:

[NeoDement]

[img]http://www.psp-themes.net/data/media/3/Silver%20Surfer_2.jpg[/img]
fuck yes

Also it seems odd to me that sails could ever be faster than rocket fuel, very interesting.

[Foogoowoman]

Deep Space Nine, anyone?

[img]http://www.3click.tv/mp4//Star%20Trek%20Deep%20Space%209/season3/metadata/72014.jpg[/img]

[Used Car Salesm]

[QUOTE=NeoDement;18335245]

Also it seems odd to me that sails could ever be faster than rocket fuel, very interesting.[/QUOTE]

They can obtain a higher speed, but they don't offer the acceleration of rockets. Which means instead of pushing a button and saying "Let's go to Mars!" they would have to spiral up from Earth orbit, getting higher and higher until they can finally break free of orbit. After that, they gradually accelerate until the halfway point in the trip, where they turn the sail around and use it to decelerate. They would probably have to spiral down into the target orbit, too, but smaller bodies like Mars require less energy to enter and exit orbit.

The concept is sound, but the challenge is making a really, really lightweight material that can stretch over tens of kilometers and not be too heavy for the sun's photons to push around. Also, whatever ship it's tied to would have to be built as light as possible, even moreso than current spacecraft, while still carrying all the life support needed for a months-long journey. If had no intention of entering the atmosphere, though, it's possible to build it out of very thin and light materials like the LEM.