Thursday, June 23, 2005
Cosmos 1 still hasn't phoned home
One of my favorite science fiction stories was Arthur C Clake's "The Wind from the Sun" a tale of a solar sail race. Solar sails always were attractive to me, there was something so cool about using light to push you around the solar system or interstellar space (I like sail generally, and I always take the opportunity to visit tall ships, and I love Eric newby's "The Last Grain Race"). Science fiction writers in general didn't have much time for solar sails, although Cordwainer Smith, Jack Vance, Robert E. Forward and Larry Niven all wrote Solar Sail stories. Solar sails don't have the same macho "right stuff" that fusion engines or hyperdrives did.
Solar sails are so simple in concept, just let photon pressure push you, but so diificult in execution. Making several miles worth of atom thin reflective material that will withstand the conditions of space, let alone the problem of packing it up an successfully unfolding it in space, is a major technical problem.
Cosmos 1 was going to be a first step to establishing solar sailing.
But something went wrong. Either it is lying at the bottom of the sea, or is is scooting along in the wrong orbit. There is a small chance that it is in the wrong orbit, and can possibly be recovered. I hope this is possible, as it will be a long slow wait until or netx opportunity to try out this beguiling concept.
Solar sails are so simple in concept, just let photon pressure push you, but so diificult in execution. Making several miles worth of atom thin reflective material that will withstand the conditions of space, let alone the problem of packing it up an successfully unfolding it in space, is a major technical problem.
Cosmos 1 was going to be a first step to establishing solar sailing.
But something went wrong. Either it is lying at the bottom of the sea, or is is scooting along in the wrong orbit. There is a small chance that it is in the wrong orbit, and can possibly be recovered. I hope this is possible, as it will be a long slow wait until or netx opportunity to try out this beguiling concept.
# posted by Ian Musgrave @ 6:57 am 
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