Main Article: Come sail away, come sail away, come sail away with me.
Sailing to the Stars with Solar Sails.
Poll Results: Another one bites the Dust. Only 6 different options left in the second series of space polls by AMERICANS IN SPACE Blog. Want more polls? Click subscribe now. Take the new poll by scrolling down.
Star Trek: In the News. NEW TRAILER
Yesterday's Interesting Comments: Yesterday the natives were restless but one of the more interesting space proposals? "Space Coal Power - I'm in favor of shipping all our coal plants into space. There would be zero (terrestrial) pollution from them, and we would create millions of good-paying teamster jobs shipping the coal to LEO."
THE COUNTDOWN- 765 days until The United States of America no longer retains the ability to launch an American into space. 765 days until America goes cap in hand to Russia to beg for a ride to the 100 billion dollar Space Station. In just two years America is grounded, Russia and China take center stage, and the world is left wondering about America as a Leader of the Free World.
"The concept of space sails is not new. About the time Jamestown was being established as America's first permanent colony at dawn of the 17th century, German astronomer Johannes Kepler penned a letter to Italian astronomer Galileo, advocating "ship or sails adapted to the heavenly breezes" to travel to Jupiter or the Moon. Having observed that a comet's tail always faces away from the Sun, Kepler concluded that light from the Sun must exert a force that pushes its tail away." Space Today-Charting a Course to the Stars
Long has been the dream of humanity to set a course in the sea of stars as easy it was to sail the seven seas on planet earth.
"The concept of solar sailing was invented in the 1920s by two Russian scientists, and it has been the subject of a few projects over the years, says Louis Friedman, the executive director of the Planetary Society, a public space organization based in Pasadena, CA. The Russians deployed a large reflective sheet of material outside their Mir space station in 1992, and the Japanese did something similar in 2004, but neither was used for solar-sail propulsion." Technology Review
That day was to be just around the corner when NASA tested the new NanoSail-D. That day never arrived. It was aboard the ill fated launch of the first Falcon 1, a new launch vehicle, by Space X.
You can read on the NASA site A Brief History of Solar Sails and learn more about this fastinating topic in space propulsion.
"Come Sail Away" Was a popular song by the band Styx.
"Im sailing away, set an open course for the virgin sea
Ive got to be free, free to face the life thats ahead of me
On board, Im the captain, so climb aboard
Well search for tomorrow on every shore
And Ill try, oh lord, Ill try to carry on
I look to the sea, reflections in the waves spark my memory
Some happy, some sad
I think of childhood friends and the dreams we had
We live happily forever, so the story goes
But somehow we missed out on that pot of gold
But well try best that we can to carry on
A gathering of angels appeared above my head
They sang to me this song of hope, and this is what they said
They said come sail away, come sail away
Come sail away with me
Come sail away, come sail away
Come sail away with me
I thought that they were angels, but to my surprise
They climbed aboard their starship and headed for the skies
Singing come sail away, come sail away
Come sail away with me
Come sail away, come sail away
Come sail away with me"
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POLL RESULTS: Another one bites the dust.
In the latest in the new series of polls on space energy another choice was eliminated. It was the chemical propulsion. The voters in this poll made it clear they do not want NASA focused on yesterday's technologies but want the Agency moving forward.
Leading the poll was Space Solar Power (SSP) or Space Based Solar Power ( SBSP) with 33% with Nuclear Engines trailing in second place with 14% and no other choice recieving double digits.
The "No Opinion" totaled 19% with those favoring space funding leading with a 3-1 advantage. Only 5% of the voters favored no new funding for space. That is a good sign.
STAR TREK: In The News.
Star Trek Internet Trailer Revealed
" "Ain't It Cool News" has debuted a new internet trailer for director J.J. Abrams' Star Trek, opening in theaters on May 8. The internet version is slightly different from the recent trailer that was released earlier this month and includes one great addition at the end."
Yesterday's Interesting Comments:
Yesterday's Topic was Space Solar Power and it sure made the natives restless. Many comments were not only opposed to a space based solar power but space in general. One comment by Seneca Doane:
"Maybe I missed it, but this diary should really address questions of weaponization of solar energy collecting in space. I take it (although it's not clear) that the delivery plan is to use microwave beams to send it back to Earth. The beaming down of large amounts of energy like -- using a technology that could presumably be refocused on other targets as the urge arises -- that strikes me as, among other things, likely to be prohibited by treaty, and for good reason. How do you overcome this?"
I will answer you this way, this site advocates a pro space and in particular a pro manned space agenda. A person could take a tire iron from a 1925 Ford and bash someone on the head with it but I do not think you are going to see many talk about that potential on a Classic Cars Blog. ANYTHING can be used as a weapon, from sticks and stones to nuclear bombs. EVERYTHING can represent a potential threat.
As President Kennedy said: "For space science, like nuclear science and all technology, has no conscience of its own. Whether it will become a force for good or ill depends on man".
Do I personally advocate for a military use for space based solar power? The answer is NO! If I were advocating that you would see it on the "Advocate's Corner" that section the lists those ideas and concepts I do endorse.
Others opposed to this concept were Bill White, a regular commentator, he didn't really endorse the idea of SSP using the TRL ( technology readiness level):
"Space solar power (in the context of supplemental a typical power grid) ranks fairly low on the TRL scale, IMHO.
Also, it is susceptible to being rendered obsolete by other green energy breakthroughs such as the photo catalytic cracking of water into hydrogen and oxygen. There is plenty of unharvested sunlight that strikes the Earth -- no need to go to space to find sunlight."
Bill also let me know that he was "working on a project to roll out my space policy views in a comprehensive fashion and I need a little more time to put that together,"
Ferris Valyn sees SSP as both an industrial scale green technology development but also help in kick starting overall space development. Ferris informed me of a new article that he was having Goff look over, it should be interesting.
Neon Vincent offered me some advice on how to work the DKOS diary program which I was ill informed about and noticed he has a killer diary, give it a read.
--Advocate's Corner--
The "Americans In Space" Diary currently advocates the following:
Manned Space Flight:
HLV - Heavy Launch Vehicle.
LEO Fuel Depot.
FTP Vehicle.
PROJECT PROMETHEUS -
Robotic Missions:
TPF - Terrestrial Planet Finder
JIMO - Jupiter Icy Moons Mission
TERMS: Terminology used on Americans In Space Blog
When commenting on astronauts these are the four types of space sailors:
Astronaut.PVT = Private astronaut, works with a privately owned space vehicle's operations.
( Burt Rutan and Scaled Composites - Space Ship One, )
Astronaut.COM = Commercial astronaut, works with a commercially owned space vehicle's operations.
( SPACE X - Dragon, Bigelow Aerospace - Sundancer, Virgin Galtic - Space Ship Two )
Astronaut.CIV = Civilian astronaut, works with a civilian owned space vehicle's operations.
( NASA, ISS - STS)
Astronaut.GOV = Government astronaut, works with a government owned space vehicle's operations.
( Military Space Place)
Someone asked, "do we have to continue with the astro?"
Well without astro, being a "naut" would be nothing. It helped build the mystical theme of being an ASTRONAUT. Having that Astro attached to your name is therefore special.
These are the three so far; Astrotech, Astrogator, Astrotourist.
The Current List of space titles used in this Diary.
astronaut = Astronauts are the Space Sailors working on and piloting space vehicles.
-- Astronaut.PVT, Astronaut.COM, Astronaut.CIV, Astronaut.GOV
astrotech = Astrotechs are the builders and mission specialists.
astrogator = Astrogators are the space investigators, the research scientists.
astrotourist = Astrotourists are the vistors to space.
-- OTHER TERMS --
FTP = Fly to point, piloting a space vehicle to a point in space, like a Lagrange point, or as a fly by: moon, mars, asteroid. There are no landings involved with a fly to point mission! Crews can do an egress to perform certain tasts. For example, a mission to a Lagrange point, dock with the James Webb Telescope, egress and make repairs.
LEO - Low Earth Orbit
GEO - Geosynchronous Earth Orbit
GTO - Geosychronous Transfer Orbit
EMLP - The Earth-Moon Lagrange Point
ESL1 - Earth-Sun Lagrange Point 1
ESL2 - Earth-Sun Lagrange Point 2
LL0 - Low Lunar Orbit
SM1 - Sun-Mars Lagrange Point
Today's Poll
Starting with 12 different technology paths it was reduced again yesterday and only 6 remain. There are also two No Opinion options, one that favors increased space funding and one that doesn't.