Posted on 06/20/2005 5:26:55 PM PDT by KevinDavis
A milestone making space mission is, quite factually, ready to set sail.
The privately sponsored Cosmos-1 solar sail is to fly into Earth orbit courtesy of a boost from a Russian Volna rocket, deployed from a Russian nuclear submarine positioned in the Barents Sea.
The submarine-launched rocket, carrying the solar sail is targeted for liftoff on June 21 at 3:46 p.m. EDT. The Volna rocket being tapped to toss Cosmos 1 into a roughly 500 mile (800 kilometer) circular, near polar orbit is a converted ballistic missile of the type once armed and aimed at the United States.
Cosmos 1’s flight is viewed as a stepping stone in developing future solar sail technologies. Solar sailing has been a long sought technology that could lead to future interstellar flight.
The solar sailing craft is a project of The Planetary Society, a public space advocacy group headquartered in Pasadena, California. The effort is also sponsored by Cosmos Studios, a science-based entertainment company located in Ithaca, New York.
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
I wonder how much further away the Voyager probes would be if they had solar sails.
or how much faster the Voyager probes could have gone with the sails..
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