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Topic: The solar sail flies out today (Read 645 times) |
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rhinoceros
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The solar sail flies out today
« on: 2005-06-21 21:42:40 » |
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Could June 21, 2005 be remembered as history one day? Or is this project bound to be forgotten?
http://www.planetary.org/
http://www.planetary.org/solarsail/index.html
In either case, these space people have an ugly mofo of a site.
Hours to launch
http://www.planetary.org/solarsail/prelaunch_report5_20050620.html
With less than 24 hours to launch, the Cosmos 1 team is going through final preparations. At Project Operations Pasadena (POP), located at The Planetary Society headquarters, the team, headed by Project Operations Manager Jim Cantrell, has been finishing up a series of rehearsals. Project Director Louis Friedman, meanwhile, is already in Moscow, where he will follow the mission from the Flight Control Center at NPO Lavochkin. Bud Schurmeier, the project’s Systems Engineering consultant, is there with him.
Speaking from Moscow, Friedman described the ongoing preparations in Russia leading up to the launch. “We had a meeting today at the Tarusa ground station with the entire group,” he said. Tarusa is a UHF tracking station located 75 miles southeast of Moscow, which will play a critical role in the early stages of the mission. “During the first orbit,” explained Friedman, “Tarusa will be responsible for most of the ground control and communications with the spacecraft.”
<snip>
[rhinoceros] Cosmos 1 has already made it into Wikipedia, with pictures. Definitely better designed than their site. The solar sail is 30 meters (100 feet) in diameter and 5-millionths of a meter thick. The rest in tomorrow's news.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_sail
<snip>
A joint private project between Planetary Society, Cosmos Studios and Russian Academy of Science launched Cosmos 1 during a window opening on June 21, 2005. A Volna rocket was used to launch the 100 kg spacecraft into orbit at an altitude of about 800 km where it should unfurl the 15 meter long sails. The sails will then be used to gradually raise the spacecraft to a higher earth orbit. The mission will last about one month. A suborbital prototype test by the group did not succeed in 2001 because of rocket failure.
<snip>
The aluminium reflecting film is on the Sun side. The sails of Cosmos 1 are made of Mylar.
<snip>
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rhinoceros
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Re:The solar sail flies out today
« Reply #1 on: 2005-06-22 13:58:07 » |
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So, the solar sail launch failed once more...
Solar sail space launch failed Russian officials
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=scienceNews&storyID=8864165
PASADENA, Calif. (Reuters) - The world's first solar sail-powered spacecraft failed to reach its planned orbit after the Russian rocket carrying it shut down less than two minutes after launch, Russia's state space agency said on Wednesday.
It was unclear if privately funded Cosmos 1 had crashed to Earth, and the U.S. backers of the project at the Planetary Society in Pasadena, California, said they had detected faint signals from the craft, possibly from a lower orbit.
"The unique solar sail spacecraft was not delivered to its planned orbit because the engine of the first stage of the 'Volna' rocket shut itself down 83 seconds into the flight," Russia's Federal Space Agency said in a statement.
Cosmos 1 was launched on Tuesday from a Russian submarine in the Barents Sea. But the disc-shaped craft lost contact with its controller almost immediately.
Planetary Society executive director Louis Friedman, who was monitoring the spacecraft from Moscow, said data pointed to a "misfire" at takeoff.
<snip>
The Planetary Society, the world's largest private space advocacy group, hoped to kick-start a race to the stars on a shoestring budget of $4 million.
<snip>
Wikipedia has already updated their entry. Until yesterday they were assuming it had succeeded:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_sail
"A joint private project between Planetary Society, Cosmos Studios and Russian Academy of Science launched Cosmos 1 on June 21, 2005, from a submarine in the Barents Sea, but the Volna rocket failed, and the spacecraft failed to reach orbit."
<snip>
Well... until next time that those aliens will shoot us down. :-/
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deadletter-j
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How many Engstrom's does it take?
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Re: virus: Re:The solar sail flies out today
« Reply #2 on: 2005-06-22 16:23:47 » |
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Do the Russians pay for a relaunch?
> -----Original Message-----
> From: rhinoceros [mailto:rhinoceros@freemail.gr]
> Sent: Wednesday, June 22, 2005 05:58 PM
> To: virus@lucifer.com
> Subject: virus: Re:The solar sail flies out today
>
>
> So, the solar sail launch failed once more...
>
>
> Solar sail space launch failed Russian officials
> http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=scienceNews&storyID=8864165
>
> PASADENA, Calif. (Reuters) - The world's first solar sail-powered spacecraft failed to reach its planned orbit after the Russian rocket carrying it shut down less than two minutes after launch, Russia's state space agency said on Wednesday.
>
> It was unclear if privately funded Cosmos 1 had crashed to Earth, and the U.S. backers of the project at the Planetary Society in Pasadena, California, said they had detected faint signals from the craft, possibly from a lower orbit.
>
> "The unique solar sail spacecraft was not delivered to its planned orbit because the engine of the first stage of the 'Volna' rocket shut itself down 83 seconds into the flight," Russia's Federal Space Agency said in a statement.
>
> Cosmos 1 was launched on Tuesday from a Russian submarine in the Barents Sea. But the disc-shaped craft lost contact with its controller almost immediately.
>
> Planetary Society executive director Louis Friedman, who was monitoring the spacecraft from Moscow, said data pointed to a "misfire" at takeoff.
>
> <snip>
>
> The Planetary Society, the world's largest private space advocacy group, hoped to kick-start a race to the stars on a shoestring budget of $4 million.
> <snip>
>
>
> Wikipedia has already updated their entry. Until yesterday they were assuming it had succeeded:
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_sail
>
> "A joint private project between Planetary Society, Cosmos Studios and Russian Academy of Science launched Cosmos 1 on June 21, 2005, from a submarine in the Barents Sea, but the Volna rocket failed, and the spacecraft failed to reach orbit."
> <snip>
>
>
> Well... until next time that those aliens will shoot us down. :-/
>
>
>
> ----
> This message was posted by rhinoceros to the Virus 2005 board on Church of Virus BBS.
> <http://www.churchofvirus.org/bbs/index.php?board=65;action=display;threadid=32861>
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Hijacking everything ever knew about anything.
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rhinoceros
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Re: virus: Re:The solar sail flies out today
« Reply #3 on: 2005-06-22 17:49:34 » |
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Ben Grad - Dead Letter B wrote:
> Do the Russians pay for a relaunch?
>
Heh, the spirit of private enterprise.
Maybe someone asks for his money back right now.
Such questions were rarely asked with NASA.
Not sure who had what contract with whom though...
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