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June 21, 2005
Sailing Away . . .
Later today, sometime around 3:45 PM Eastern, The Planetary Society will launch Cosmos 1. The spacecraft will be launched form a Russian submarine and hopefully climb to an altitude of about 500 miles. Once there, it will deploy 8 solar sails. These sails will begin harnessing the solar wind and if all goes well, the craft will be able to change orbit using only the motive forces provided by photons streaming out of the sun. The spacecraft will literally ride on winds of light.
Click to enlarge.
It's an ambitious undertaking, especially for a private foundation comprised almost entirely of individuals with a strong enthusiasm for space exploration. If the mission is a success it will pave the way for private and corporate space exploration and hopefully light another fire under the governmental space exploration agencies to work on solar sail exploration projects.
It's all very exciting and I'd made a bigger post about how solar sail spacecraft could reach some truely impressive speeds and bridge the distances between the stars in decades rather than centuries, but I opened to many windows getting supporting links, so that will have to come later. Maybe when I finally get around to finishing the big Space Elevator post.
I'll probably update on this more after the successful launch, keep your fingers crossed, OK!
--Jason
PS - Here are some guidelines if you want to see the spacecraft yourself.
Posted by JasonColeman at June 21, 2005 12:13 AM
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