DescentBB

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/11/1 ... index.html

I've seen various other versions of this before... the whole concept is pretty darn amazing.

a converted intercontinental ballistic missile launched from a submerged Russian submarine in the Barents Sea,

I say it's a cover for the frist strike. Me must launch pre-emptively now.

Thats cool, I didn't realize that one would be orbited this soon. I wish them Rooskies luck ...

ZZZonline issue 125 - April 22 2002

ZZZonline wrote:The launch is scheduled for the first quarter of 2004

they are late.

www.lgarde.com wrote:http://www.lgarde.com/people/papers/TESS/
The Team Encounter solar sail, scheduled for launch late 2006

hmm it seems they changed the launch date.

i seem to remember doing some further research on this, but it's not in the article. i remember that the sail is so huge that you will be able to see it with the naked eye from earth! i hope i'm not getting mixed up with another seperate solar sail project, too bad the project's official website http://www.teamencounter.com/ isn't allowing ppl in atm. perhaps slashdotted.

edit: actually. THIS ISN'T THE SAME PROJECT AT ALL!!
the project CNN is talking about is a different project altogether, the solar sail design is completely different.
CNN is talking about the Cosmos 1 craft. not the Team Encounter solar sail Craft.

i don't think i've even heard about this Cosmos craft until now.

http://www.planetary.org/solarsail/ <-- the organisation's website.

http://www.solarsail.org/ <-- this site seems the main one, it has videos.

here's what i've learned so far...

this craft is going to orbit earth, testing out the sails and doing various things with them, nothing more. it's not going to go cruising around past other planets or anything, which is a shame.

they do plan on doing some cool experiments though, Mobius will be pleased with this one: they plan on attempting to augment the solar wind thrust with terrestrial based microwave beams, and perhaps other types of lasers.

this is a good idea, because a solar craft is only really useful in the solar system. the further it gets from the sun the less the thrust, so once it leaves the solar system it doesn't accelerate anymore anyway. in otherwords, it has a definite speed limit defined by the run up length it can get from the sun (perhaps augmented by some slingshotting, but this will be harder to organise without a portable source of thrust (like perhaps an ion drive), using JUST solar wind.) i dunno, i don't know too much about sailing.

So theoretically I suppose you could go intersolar... I guess you'd have to have everything perfectly lined up and such... so there are two seperate projects, both set for around 2006, and one large enough to see with the naked eye? sounds pretty darn cool.

nono, the one you posted launches in only a few months from now.

err yeah, by that I meant around the same time.