do you think the moon landing was fake?

[CalliArcale]

The first solar sail project will launch in about a month and a half -- Cosmos 1. If all goes well, it should validate the technology. It consists of eight triangular sails over fifteen meters long. It will very slowly raise its orbit over a period of days, using nothing more than the very light pressure of the solar wind to do it. After a month, the Mylar sails are expected to be too degraded to fly. (The solar wind is definintely damaging. Apollo astronauts did experiments where Mylar sheets were exposed to the elements and returned to Earth, a sort of precursor to the more sophisticated sampling done by the Genesis mission.)<br /><br />The solar wind can definintely move a flag. But it'll move it so slightly that you won't be able to see it. A flag situated on the Moon will be affected more by the Moon's gravity, and so the effect will not be measurable at all I suspect, unless you've got REALLY sensitive equipment.<br /><br />Click here to read about Cosmos 1 <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[jatslo]

<font color="yellow">The first solar sail project will launch in about a month and a half -- Cosmos </font><br /><br />Where's it headed, and how far will it travel?

 

[jurgens]

http://www.planetary.org/solarsail/<br /><br /><br />"Cosmos 1 will orbit the Earth at an altitude of over 800 kilometers. It will gradually raise its orbit by solar sailing -- the pressure of light particles from the Sun upon its luminous sails."<br /><br />It's not going anywhere special it is trying to prove the feasibility of a solar sail in outer space though.<br /><br />I could see a larger version of Cosmos 1 being used as a tug for LEO-GEO, would be pretty cool actually. It would probablly increase the amount of kgs you could send into high orbit by the virtue that much less fuel needs to be carried in the uper stage. That is, if it works.

 

[jatslo]

Cool! Thank You for the link ;o)

 

[alokmohan]

Then I must check up .May be I misunderstood or you.

 

[Saiph]

hmm...if the sail becomes useless after a while...I wonder how they're going to manage larger sails for longer periods.<br /><br />Interesting. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p align="center"><font color="#c0c0c0"><br /></font></p><p align="center"><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">--------</font></em></font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">--------</font></em></font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">----</font></em></font><font color="#666699">SaiphMOD@gmail.com </font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">-------------------</font></em></font></p><p><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">"This is my Timey Wimey Detector.  Goes "bing" when there's stuff.  It also fries eggs at 30 paces, wether you want it to or not actually.  I've learned to stay away from hens: It's not pretty when they blow" -- </font></em></font><font size="1" color="#999999">The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[CalliArcale]

Different materials, I expect, or perhaps the sails will be replacable. Mylar is probably just convenient for this technology demonstrator mission. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>