In reply to Terry Blanton's message of Sat, 12 Feb 2005 15:14:08 -0800: Hi, [snip] >http://www.physics.uci.edu/faculty/Acceleration_of_Sails.pdf > >Excerpt from PDF file: > >The major points in this report are: > >(a) Beamed power can drive thermal desorption from LEO >sails, giving high initial velocities, using coated >sail surfaces. > >(b) This capability will open many kinds of fast-start >interplanetary solar sailing missions > >(c) Sun Diver missions, which need to have sails >tested to high temperatures, can be studied in LEO, >observing their response to power beamed to (or from) >LEO. [snip] The side of this not mentioned, is that it would require high powered beamed power sources, on the surface &/or in space. The space based variety would make an ideal weapon to suppress humanity.
Regards, Robin van Spaandonk All SPAM goes in the trash unread.
