The Planetary Society in Pasadena has been trying for years to test a solar sail in space. The last one, launched aboard a converted ballistic missile that a Russian submarine fired off four years go went, uh, purely ballistic and right into the drink. Yesterday it officially announced its next effort with a similar test article – to do a brief jaunt in low Earth orbit – and several big news outlets bit on it.

The big chomp came at the NYTimes, where Dennis Overbye makes it the lead, art-heavy article in the Science Times section. Nice light lede, too: Peter Pan would be so happy.  It is possible he threw this longish story together in the last day or two, but more likely had a longer heads-up. The accompanying graphic diagram is big.

Most outlets use one or another version of the handout artist’s impression above right. It shows this craft wafting etherealy along through space on a tide of solar radiation. The Tracker is one of those bores who hiss if a sci fi movies has its explosions in space making noise. So indulge me : 1) one doubts that any camera exposure that shows this brilliant solar sail so nicely would not come close to revealing the Milky Way’s stars and dusty lanes too (same reason as for no stars in the sky in Apollo landing photos) and 2) If it is as wrinkly as it appears, how could one get such a nice reflection of Earth?  Never mind….it’s art.

The news includes word that an anonymous donor put up $1 million for the test flight (which is small and lightweight, expected to piggy back at modest cost on another as-yet-unselected flight). Prediction: some blogger will spill the beans, tipped off from inside the Planetary Society or the donor’s own organization. Who could it be… Bruce Murray? Paul Allen? Bill Gates? Elon Musk (if he’s not tapped out by electric cars and his rocket company)? Who…?

Other stories:

• USA Today – Dan Vergano: Solar sail to launch in 2010 ; Just a brief piece at the ScienceFair on line site.
• AP – John Antczak: Planetary Society plans new ’solar sail’ ;
• Reuters – Steve Gorman: New solar-sail mission planned after 2005 failure ;

Grist for the Mill: Planetary Society Press Release ; LightSail site.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 10th, 2009 at 1:47 pm and is filed under Science Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.