TOTALLY OFF: Who died...

[Denis Regenbrecht]

Hi Mike, hi BOC-L,

>Of course we haven't quite sorted out unrolling tethers in zerogee yet,
>but in principle large lightsails being used as mirrors doesn't present
>any serious technological problems. There#s a good chance we'll see
>solar sailing ships in our lifetimes although ion engines look like they
>may give them a run for their money.

Not long ago I saw a presentation by a guy from the DLR (something like the
German NASA, but without the money *g*) who was working on a
tech-demonstrator of a small solar sail spacecraft. They plan to launch it
in the near future, if funding won't be cut. Their approach seemed very
promising to me.
But as someone who comes from the orbital mechanics side (currently working
on the MarsExpress mission) I have to say that calculating and optimizing
trajectories for solar sail spacecrafts is a pain in the a** compared to
traditional chemical propulsion methods. But the same DLR-guy also told
about some new computation models using neural networks which are superior
to traditional methods.
BTW, I agree with everything you said about the Apollo-trash, Mike.
Nowadays everything will be undertaken to minimize the influence of
Earth-made objects like probes on the environment of other celestial
bodies. All Mars-probes for example are sterilized so that no contamination
with germs &c. will take place.
And I think the scientific results made possible with this missions justify
the occasional piece of space-trash here and there.

just my 0.02€

(c)IAO
                                 D+R