Solar Sails
Sailing Into the Final Frontier
Space, the final frontier, it has always been a goal to explore the universe and unlock its mysteries. Science had yet to create a method that allows man to travel fast enough or far enough to discover what lies beyond what we already know is there, until now. Scientific evidence for this amazing new form of interstellar transportation dates back as far as the 1920s with Russian scientists, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky and Fridrikh Arturovich Tsander. Their fantastic and new idea has been known to be, the solar sail, a thin reflective material that will one day make the universe just a little bit smaller.
The first question anyone asks when hearing about a ...
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the universe, is made up of small particles. Light particles, called photons, are what enable the sail to accelerate. When light reflects off of the shiny material of the sail, two transfers of energy occur. One by the shear momentum of the photon hitting the sail, and the other because of Newton’s 3rd law of motion, which states that ever action has an equal and opposite reaction. This means that when the photon bounces off in the opposite direction of the sail, it pushes the sail with the same force as it is bouncing in the other direction (Alexander & Friedman, 2004). Photons are microscopic, so even though trillions of photons are hitting the sail and transferring their energy, it still barely accelerates at all. Even under the best of conditions, the solar sail is only capable of accelerating at about 1 millimeter per second. This small acceleration may seem insignificant at first, but because it accelerates constantly, after time the speed could be astronomical. It is ...
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With no engines or complicated machinery, the three piece contraption is a relatively simple vessel when it comes to space travel.
In order to insert the sail into outer space, the sail will need to be launched into orbit. Solar sail launches and shuttle lunches are much different in comparison. Solar sails do not use a launch pad and do not require large engines full of rocket fuel. When taking off, the solar sail’s rocket is loaded into and launched from a submarine. After launch, a series of three engines fire off one after the other until the apogee kick motor is ignited. The kick motor is used for orbit insertion. The entire process from submarine launch to orbit will last just ...
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Solar Sails. (2011, March 21). Retrieved April 20, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Solar-Sails/96427
"Solar Sails." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 21 Mar. 2011. Web. 20 Apr. 2024. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Solar-Sails/96427>
"Solar Sails." Essayworld.com. March 21, 2011. Accessed April 20, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Solar-Sails/96427.
"Solar Sails." Essayworld.com. March 21, 2011. Accessed April 20, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Solar-Sails/96427.
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