LightSail 2 Spacecraft Successfully Demonstrates Flight by Light
1–10 of 150 posts
Re: LightSail 2 Spacecraft Successfully Demonstrates Flight by Light
#2Very cool! I know nothing about solar sails, but I wonder if the craft could have LEDs mounted to it so it could bombard different regions of the sail with photons to make it turn appropriately.
Re: LightSail 2 Spacecraft Successfully Demonstrates Flight by Light
#3Very cool! I know nothing about solar sails, but I wonder if the craft could have LEDs mounted to it so it could bombard different regions of the sail with photons to make it turn appropriately.
If you emit a particle (a photon) and then catch it the net effect will be 0.
Re: LightSail 2 Spacecraft Successfully Demonstrates Flight by Light
#4Very cool! I know nothing about solar sails, but I wonder if the craft could have LEDs mounted to it so it could bombard different regions of the sail with photons to make it turn appropriately.
I would assume the number of photons coming from the sun is many orders of magnitude higher than any LED could ever hope to produce.
This is of course overlooking the whole "pull oneself up by one's bootstraps" vibe.
Re: LightSail 2 Spacecraft Successfully Demonstrates Flight by Light
#5Very cool! I know nothing about solar sails, but I wonder if the craft could have LEDs mounted to it so it could bombard different regions of the sail with photons to make it turn appropriately.
If you emit a particle (a photon) and then catch it the net effect will be 0.
Exactly, it is much like using a fan on a boat to blow a sail.
Re: LightSail 2 Spacecraft Successfully Demonstrates Flight by Light
#6Very cool! I know nothing about solar sails, but I wonder if the craft could have LEDs mounted to it so it could bombard different regions of the sail with photons to make it turn appropriately.
That's like trying to propel your sailboat by holding up an electric fan.
Re: LightSail 2 Spacecraft Successfully Demonstrates Flight by Light
#7Very cool! I know nothing about solar sails, but I wonder if the craft could have LEDs mounted to it so it could bombard different regions of the sail with photons to make it turn appropriately.
That would be like taking fan and blowing it into your own sails. It wouldn't work.
Re: LightSail 2 Spacecraft Successfully Demonstrates Flight by Light
#8Very cool! I know nothing about solar sails, but I wonder if the craft could have LEDs mounted to it so it could bombard different regions of the sail with photons to make it turn appropriately.
That's like trying to propel your sailboat by holding up an electric fan.
I mean, it's only the size of a boxing ring, not a football field. I think LEDs could produce enough light to have a net effect.
Re: LightSail 2 Spacecraft Successfully Demonstrates Flight by Light
#9Why deorbit it though? Why not try for an EM-Lagrange point?
Re: LightSail 2 Spacecraft Successfully Demonstrates Flight by Light
#10Very cool! I know nothing about solar sails, but I wonder if the craft could have LEDs mounted to it so it could bombard different regions of the sail with photons to make it turn appropriately.
That would be like taking fan and blowing it into your own sails. It wouldn't work.
It does work though, depending on the material your sail is made of.
Try it: attach an electric fan to a pinewood derby car and point it so it is blowing into a tin foil sail also attached to the pine wood derby car. The car will move forward.