Solar sail gets ready for launch

[OXO]

A solar sail spacecraft launches on Tuesday, to demonstrate an elegant new way to power interplanetary probes.

View Details Here http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4110912.stm

James

[AJE]

Been thinking about this - this sail has a very low acceleration but over a long period of time this could mount up to be a very fast craft indeed.... And according to the articles I've read "could reach the stars in amazing times...

Firstly, as there is no way to turn these crafts - they would neeed to be aimed very precisly to actually arrive at the intended object.

Secondly, how the hell are they going to stop / slow down... I mean wehats the point of visiting the stars if you end up doing a flyby at 10% the speed of light???

LB

[Rob]

Yeah I saw this news item this morning. I read about it some time ago, the original thought was sling shot around th sun, thus provide a massive speed to allow long distance travel :idea: ... looks real nice as well.

Rob 8)