When I read some of these comments I picture the comic book store guy from the Simpsons...It's a good story just enjoy it.
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Err, kudos to the team but the Japanese already demonstrated this technology in 2010. The IKAROS sailed between planets and up 230 million miles from Earth.
Also, you don't have to go into space to demonstrate the technology. You can test it in your own home with little equipment and a little bit of research.
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I am a 25 year engineering veteran of Silicon Valley, as tech immersed as anyone. But the pure romantic vision of “sailing on sun beams” reminds me of why it was worth it.
“I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving - we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it - but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor." - Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
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LightSail 2 did not "launch" on June 25. It "was launched" on June 25.
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There’s nothing wrong with launched grammatically. It’s past tense. Stylistically, the “be” verb “was” is entirely unnecessary.
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Hoist the colors.
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"... particles of light ..."
Those are called "photons", which are never explicitly mentioned in the article.
In contrast, the AP's article uses the technically correct terminology -- "the momentum of photons".*
Explaining "momentum" may be too much to do in a Times article, but a simple analogy with golf balls, say, would be sufficient to explain how photons have momentum.
* Images Show Lightsail 2 Spacecraft's Solar Sail Has Deployed
By The Associated Press
July 26, 2019
https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2019/07/26/us/ap-us-solar-sail.html
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Inspiring and beautiful and fun to read! Jules Verne come to life. Now this is news!
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Sailing through space, no burning of fuels, the quiet of the solar wind, but wait, whats that on the horizon? Another sail approaches, flying the Jolly Roger, plundering satellites of data and holding it for ransom. Space grows up.
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"Another sail approaches, flying the Jolly Roger, plundering satellites of data and holding it for ransom."
Pirates board the ships they are attacking, so you will need to explain how that "data" would actually be "plundered".
A more practical approach would entail commandeering the communication links. Something like that is alleged to have been done by the Iranians in 2011 when a US RQ-170 drone crashed on Iranian territory.*
"Space grows up."
A far more realistic threat is ground-based anti-satellite weapons.
* See the Wikipedia article, "Iran–U.S. RQ-170 incident". See, also:
Iran Shows Video It Says Is of U.S. Drone
By RICK GLADSTONE
DEC. 8, 2011
New York Times
@richard wiesner
Space pirates! Yaaar!
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@YVR
The Iranians spoofed the GPS signals.
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“...the spacecraft has been swinging its sails to catch the sunlight, much like a sailboat tacking in the wind.”
Sailors love a good nautical metaphor, but they probably cringe every time they read most journalist accounts of Lightsail. Why? The spacecraft is propelled by being pushed ‘downwind’ by the solar wind, it is not sailing toward the solar wind or ‘upwind’. If anything, the swings of the sails are much more like a ‘gybe’ which is what is used to better position a sailboat to catch the wind that comes from somewhere behind, not a ‘tack’ which is used to position a sailboat to harness the wind that comes from somewhere ahead.
Alas, it’s not the first time we’ll see reporters run aground - and probably not the last. All we readers can do is shine a light on such nautical hazards...
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@Michael G.
Good point, Michael. You are right that the correct analogy is to a ‘gybe’ downwind, not a tack. I would add that in order to tack, a sailing ship must also have a keel or a daggerboard to enable it to track in the water, and in space there is nothing to track in, and therefore it is impossible for a light-sailing ship to tack ‘upwind’, i.e., toward the source of the solar wind.
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@Mot Bardwash (if that really is your name!): Thanks for explaining that. I'd also point out that, for a sail to have any "drive" (force pushing the sail forward) upwind, the sail must be curved with wind passing over the convex surface while wind also fills the other, concave, side. That creates a pressure difference according to Bernoulli's principle, and that provides the drive. I can't see how that would happen in space.
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Congratulations! Marvelous achievement. This may be the one of the best ways to get to planets outside our solar system. While SpaceX and Blue Origin are focused on propulsion (and solar system exploration), we need new ways to get to places much further away. Exciting!
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This is an amazing feat. It'll take a while for this to power heavier spacecraft, but an enormous solar sail many miles in diameter would accelerate a light payload to extraordinary speeds.
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