hi mr. holtkamp I have been looking at the website for the ALOS project, http://alos.nasda.go.jp/index-e.html I see nothing which indicates a test of a solar sail. I think what was meant by the person who wrote the text for the website was "solar panel." I noticed as I read the front page that there are several grammar or vocabulary errors. however, I'm not going to rip on the person who wrote it, as my japanese vocabulary is hardly 10 words. I too am greatly interested in the potential of solar sails. technically, you could say the solar panel also acts as a solar sail (in fact during the mercury mariner mission of '74/'75, pressure from solar winds on similar panels was used to aid in maintaining the craft's attitude, sparing precious propellant from being spent on that task, perhaps the first true use of the solar wind during a spaceflight.) I look forward with great anticipation to the next attempt at "proving" this concept for propulsion. what interests me even more than a solid "sail" is the M2P2 concept, also called mini-magnetospheric propulsion. why it hasn't been attempted yet during a spaceflight is beyond me. for those of you who are especially free of meaningful tasks, there is a really cool little 1/72nd scale printable model of ALOS on the site! click where it says "papercraft." clear skies! stephan szyman chicago IL USA 41.6840N, 87.7000W; 188 msl ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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