There's an interesting piece in WiredNews this morning on the debate currently taking place about the feasability of spacecraft operating via solar sail.
The solar sail exhibit is part of Rockefeller Center's new Centennial of Flight show, which traces technological advances made in aviation during the last century.
If all goes well, Cosmos will prove that solar sails are the future of space flight, a viable technology that can allow humans to glide gracefully through space relying primarily on naturally produced propulsion instead of jet engines and fuel.
But some scientists say solar sailing is an impossible dream that defies the unbreakable laws of physics. Others insist that those very same laws of physics indicate that solar sailing is quite feasible.
Say, this whole thing kind of reminds me of the Great Assembler Debate currently taking place in the field of nanotechnology. So who's right: the Looney Tunes hobbyists who think you can sail around the solar system in a spacecraft pushed by the force of sunshine, or the constipated buzzkill realists who know it's impossible? To quote Richard Smalley (via Eric Drexler):
...when a scientist says something is possible, they're probably underestimating how long it will take. But if they say it's impossible, they're probably wrong.
So, yeah, my guess is that we'll have solar-powered spaceships sooner or later. My problem with solar sails has never been one of feasability. I've just always thought they were kind of, well, lame.
I remember first encountering the idea reading Pierre Boulle's Planet of the Apes when I was 10 or 11, and it left me cold even then. I guess I'm just a rocket guy at heart. I like ideas like the ramjet/scramjet. And nothing can compare to the good old-fashioned nuclear-weapon-powered-rocket.
Now that's flying.
Posted by Phil at July 30, 2003 07:51 AM | TrackBack