Japan's Solar Sail Is the Toast of Space Science

[bananas]

http://www.space.com/news/solar-sail-exploration-hailed-100721.html

Japan's Solar Sail Is the Toast of Space Science
By Jeremy Hsu
SPACE.com Senior Writer
posted: 21 July 2010

NEW YORK – Researchers from around the world are celebrating what they're calling a new dawn for spaceflight following the success of a Japanese craft propelled by a solar sail.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency spacecraft Ikaros, which launched in May alongside the Venus-bound orbiter Akatsuki, is the first vehicle to have deployed a solar sail and successfully rode the sunlight in deep space.

Ikaros mission scientists and other researchers are discussing the state of solar sail propulsion this week at the second International Symposium on Solar Sailing at the New York City College of Technology in Brooklyn. The three-day symposium began Tuesday.

"It should have begun with a famous New York ticker-tape parade for our colleagues from Japan who took us to this reality," said Louis Friedman, co-founder of the Planetary Society, in Pasadena, Calif., which has attempted to use solar sails and is preparing for another mission.

<snip>

[Bonobo]

1. And it only cost $16 million to build!!!

1/3 of the cost of one of these:

[ZombieHorde]

2. Cool. nt

[Blacksheep214]

3. They are 15 years behind DS-9

http://www.startrek.com/database_article/Explorers_1995-05-08-00-00-00
The story is good despite the secondary junk. Stick to the ship!

This is a Bajoran Lightship.


Are we there yet?


Whatdoyoumean its not real?
Less war budget, more space science $$$
Let's make it so!

[Phoonzang]

4. Yeah but what if the ship ends up getting caught in a space eddy and

we discover the Cardassians who thousands of years later come to enslave us?

[Nihil]

5. ... which, in turn, was 33 years behind Arthur C. Clarke ...

"The Wind from the Sun" inspired more than just DS-9 :hi:

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

7. And 50 years behind Tom Swift Jr.

http://www.tomswift.info/homepage/cosmic.html

[sakabatou]

6. Akatsuki?

That probe isn't controlled by these guys, is it?