Hey /sci/ what is so wrong with solar sails I think their great.

>>8898453
Can't carry shit without turning from "quite fast" to hella slow

>>8898503
Can you explain why please, why would it slow down if you are just strapping weightless objects to it ?

>>8898453
they're*

>>8898597
Weightless doesn't mean massless.

>>8898453
>> doesn't need energy to run
Oh they very much need energy to run

Deploying large flexible structures in space is difficult. The japs were the first ones to get it to work because of their damn origami

>>8898959
>The japs were the first ones to get it to work because of their damn origami
superior gook origami structure too complex for the white man.

takes forever to accelerate. Exponentially less power as you get away from the sun. Prone to damage by radiation/debris

use solar sails navigate towards objects in space so we can slingshot around them

Why don't they use them on some fucking 1kg probes and send a billion out in all directions? Who cares if small tears show up after they're cruising at 0.1c

>>8898453
their time is here! They really require an amazing surface area to payload ratio, and the continued miniaturization of space equipment and electronics has finally allowed good mission designs. JAXA is going to do a followup to IKAROS (which is still going strong!) and I just heard a talk by Les Johnson about NASA's first solar sail science mission: Near Earth Asteroid Scout.

Solar sails are meme drives that sound good to ecotards who don't even have a use for space propulsion.

>>8899041
>Why don't they use them on some fucking 1kg probes
What the fuck would you do with a kilogram probe at any interstellar distance?
Voyagers had 100kg of plutonium RTG's and huge solar panels and they will be fucking dead by 2025

>Who cares if small tears show up after they're cruising at 0.1c
they will be swiss cheese before they hit anywhere near that speed
hell I want to see anything with solar sail actually leave solar system without getting raped by space dust.

>>8899041
Aside from the aforementioned problems, 0.1c is not near fast enough.

>>8899216
>>8899301
You can't fit some radio sensors into a 1kg probe?

>>8899373
You need power especially if you get further away from the sun. And quite a strong transmitter due to the huge distance. Wich costs power.

>>8899373
you aren't gonna receive very good signal from Proxima Centauri with a walkie-talkie, my man
we're talking megawatt ranges
we've never even constructed a satellite with that kind of juice under the hood
kilogram for whole thing is just ludicrous

>>8899216
>voyager
>solar panels
Voyager only uses an RTG.

Juno, which is orbiting Jupiter right now, is currently the furthest spacecraft from the sun to use solar panels.

>>8898597
>what is inertia

>>8899458
you are right

>>8898992
>Exponentially less power
Inverse square

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Not OP, but won't future interstellar craft basically have to use both solar sails and Orion-type fission pulse drives in combination?

>>8899491
why on earth would they HAVE to use both?
at least state the reason you think it's the case

>>8899416
Pretty sure my raspberry pi could broadcast through space, there's nothing to impede the signal.

>hurrdurr inverse square nonsense

>>8899807
>there's nothing to impede the signal.
fucking kill yourself

>>8899814
>muh dark aether particle energy cloud faith

no, you kill yourself you fucking religious faggot

>>8899917
Your Raspberry wouldn't let you call anywhere, let alone another solar system, if you didn't have a 200 kilowatt relay tower behind every blade of grass you fucking dipshit.
There is a reason why walkie talkies barely work for five miles but Early warning radars literally pick up their own signal after it goes all the way around the planet you fucking idiot.
Space is filled with radiation sources.
You need to be louder than all of it if you want to be heard.

>>8899938
>specific broadcast frequencies don't exist
>marconi can send a signal across an ocean impeded by the atmosphere but you couldn't send a signal through the emptiness of space

are you retarded?

>>8899216
Space dust is like 1 part per trillion you idiot.

>>8898597
>weightless objects
what, like fucking ghosts?

what did he mean by this?

>>8898453
How do you even get into orbit of any body with paperweight of thrust?

>>8899491
How would the sail survive explosions?

Also, I'd have a feeling in LEO, the small amount of atmosphere there is would cause more drag than thrust produced by the sail itself, limiting it even further.

>>8898597
BILL NYE THE SCIENCE GUY

INERTIA IS A PROPERTY OF MATTER

BILL! BILL! BILL! BILL! BILL! BILL! BILL! BILL!

>>8898453
>I think their great
Their great what? Great grandpa?

>>8900799
>Space dust is like 1 part per trillion
>per trillion
Per trillion what, exactly?

>>8901415
However the hell the Orion ones do, I suppose. ¯\_( ._.)_/¯

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>>8899491
Orion's pusher plate isn't made of flimsy sails that are supposed to be as light as possible.

Speaking of weight

>a craft that is purposefully heavy as to not tear itself apart through the acceleration of its propulsion system
>add another propulsion system that needs low mass crafts to even be useful
?

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>>8904332
>you will never witness the shining glory of orion starship taking flight towards some distant world while enjoying a nice cold drink made by your atomic powered robot servant and thinking about the unironically bright future of humanity

Hippies were a mistake.
>t.humanity's future