Smart glass helps pioneering solar sail to steer

Imagine the next time you join a discussion about . When you start sharing the fascinating facts below, your friends will be absolutely amazed.

IT'S the trailblazer of solar sailing. Japan's IKAROS spacecraft has second-hand "smart glass" skill to guide by,by means of merely the force of sunlight " a primary for solar sails.

IKAROS customer in May and almost immediately following extremely old the primary solar sail to be completely propelled by sunlight. Now liquid crystal devices the distance end to end of the outer edge of the sail contain person's name second-hand to guide the craft. The devices manage the reflectivity of the outer sections of the sail; switching one on creates a mirror-like effect, allowing sunlight to shove additional on persons lesser of the sail.

"With petroleum we can manage together the orbit and the attitude by,by means of merely sunlight," inappropriately Yuichi Tsuda of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

Still, the new skill may not win solar-sail races any occasion soon. Compared by means of thrusters, construct stay the major technique of steering the spacecraft, the result of the reflecting devices is slight. The sail can merely alter its attitude by concerning 1 amount per day, Tsuda says, and it stay fewer effectual the earlier the sail spins.

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Two Suggestions

Wed Jul 28 01:14:05 BST 2010 by Dennett Netterville

1. Run the ,whole sail in mirror mode to double the thrust all the time;

If you find yourself confused by what you've read to this point, don't despair. Everything should be crystal clear by the time you finish.

2 Sequentially twist off mirror mode on the outer panels at a speed so as to matches the sail's speed of spin, so the asymmetric steering power leftovers steady in spite of of spin.

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