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Solar sail success

Discussion in 'Fred's House of Pancakes' started by bwilson4web, Aug 1, 2019.

  1. bwilson4web

    bwilson4web BMW i3 and Model 3

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    Source: Solar Sail Success! LightSail 2 Is Officially Soaring on Sunlight | Space

    After LightSail 2 successfully deployed its solar sail last week, mission managers remotely optimized the craft's orientation. With these small changes, the craft began raising its orbit above our planet, raising its apogee, or orbital high point. Within the past four days, the craft has raised its apogee about 1.2 miles (2 kilometers). The mission team behind the craft confirmed that this orbital raising could be due to nothing other than successful solar sailing, or propulsion from photons, particles that transmit light, from the sun.​

    Astronomers complained about the "Starlink" constellation causing problems for ground based telescopes. Imagine what would happen if solar cell technology became common. In effect, a cloud of aluminized mylar circling the globe. Then there is their space debris potential.

    Bob Wilson
     
    #1 bwilson4web, Aug 1, 2019
    hyo silver and Greenteapri like this.
  2. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    ugh, not bill nye again, the guy is like horsepoop
     
    #2 bisco, Aug 3, 2019
  3. hyo silver

    hyo silver Awaaaaay

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    Back when I first read about solar sails, it sounded so simple. It took longer than I thought, but it's pretty cool to be living in the future we once only dreamed about. I'll leave the nightmare part out of it...
     
    #3 hyo silver, Aug 6, 2019
  4. KennyGS

    KennyGS Senior Member

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    Not sure I get your analogy. :eek:
     
    #4 KennyGS, Aug 6, 2019
  5. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    every time i turn on tv, he's staring at me
     
    #5 bisco, Aug 6, 2019
  6. Greenteapri

    Greenteapri Active Member

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    Origin - YouTube original

    Upgrade that nightmare.
     
    #6 Greenteapri, Aug 7, 2019
  7. Greenteapri

    Greenteapri Active Member

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    It's not an analogy, it's hatred.

    Also, see simile.
     
    #7 Greenteapri, Aug 7, 2019
  8. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    hatred is a strong word, but i am tired of him popping up everywhere i go.

    it all started 30 years ago when he and ellen degeneres were shilling for exxon at the disney world pavilion
     
    #8 bisco, Aug 7, 2019
    Last edited: Aug 7, 2019
  9. Greenteapri

    Greenteapri Active Member

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    Shill baby, shill!

    You trigger easily. I'm so sorry for you. Really.
     
    #9 Greenteapri, Aug 7, 2019
  10. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    no problem, i feel sorry for my self :)
     
    #10 bisco, Aug 7, 2019
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  11. bwilson4web

    bwilson4web BMW i3 and Model 3

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    I'm reminded of the near pathological hatred of Elon Musk by Tesla critics. Unable to find credible faults in the Tesla EVs, ~2/3d of all USA sales in July, the critics become the Internet version of a stalker.

    As for Bill Nye, he isn't on my short list as most of what he discusses I know already. A former engineer, Bill explains things for the unsophisticated . . . who sometimes resent it. But the solar sail predates Bill.

    Johannes Kepler observed that comet tails point away from the Sun and suggested that the Sun caused the effect. In a letter to Galileo in 1610, he wrote, "Provide ships or sails adapted to the heavenly breezes, and there will be some who will brave even that void." He might have had the comet tail phenomenon in mind when he wrote those words, although his publications on comet tails came several years later.[3]

    James Clerk Maxwell, in 1861–1864, published his theory of electromagnetic fields and radiation, which shows that light has momentum and thus can exert pressure on objects. Maxwell's equations provide the theoretical foundation for sailing with light pressure. So by 1864, the physics community and beyond knew sunlight carried momentum that would exert a pressure on objects.
    . . .     ​

    I'm just glad to see a demonstration, solar sail in orbit and achieving higher higher orbital altitudes.

    Bob Wilson
     
    #11 bwilson4web, Aug 8, 2019
    fuzzy1, kgall and Prius Maximus like this.
  12. ETC(SS)

    ETC(SS) The OTHER One Percenter.....

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    @ sails: The world needs more sails and solar panels. Space can use more of them too. It will be interesting to see if this can scale up to perhaps a slow boat to Artemis.
    I'm not an engineer, but I'm thinking that once you get out past Mars you're going to be in the doldrums.

    @ Nye. Meh...
    The unsophisticated need their heroes too, I guess.
    It's like people who turn to comedy shows on cable TV for....news.

    @ Musk.
    "Slightly" less stable than Edison but every bit as accomplished, although Edison DID enjoy his "little" publicity stunts too!
    Topsy (elephant) - Wikipedia
    Edisonian morals.
     
    #12 ETC(SS), Aug 8, 2019
  13. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    Has anyone been tracking its orbital elements to see if the semi-major axis has increased? Or are the sponsors even making this claim at all?

    The skeptic in me doesn't want to see only the apogee increase, as this doesn't really increase the real orbital altitude. The articles do disclose that the perigee is falling, though don't say how fast. If perigee drops faster than apogee rises, it really means that the satellite is actually descending, not climbing, while the eccentricity is being increased by whatever perturbation mechanism, reducing the orbit's angular momentum.

    The orbit is clearly not undergoing normal changes, and a closer look could well demonstrate that this is a perfectly reasonable marker of the sails actually working as claimed. Just beware that on the surface of it, a shrinking semi-major orbital axis opens the door and rolls out a red carpet to skeptics. A rising element would be a much more robust demonstration.
     
    #13 fuzzy1, Aug 10, 2019
  14. bwilson4web

    bwilson4web BMW i3 and Model 3

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    I found this source: LightSail 2 Spacecraft Successfully Demonstrates Flight by Light | The Planetary Society

    Apparently they are reducing the perigee to support de-orbiting.

    Bob Wilson
     
    #14 bwilson4web, Aug 11, 2019
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