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Found at: gopher.quux.org:70/Archives/usenet-a-news/FA.space/81.11.25_ucbvax.5306_fa.space.txt

Aucbvax.5306
fa.space
utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!space
Wed Nov 25 03:22:55 1981
SPACE Digest V2 #41
>From OTA@S1-A Wed Nov 25 03:17:47 1981
SPACE Digest                                      Volume 2 : Issue 41
Today's Topics:
			       Solar Sails
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 24 Nov 1981 20:43:31-PST
From: decvax!duke!unc!smb at Berkeley
In-real-life: Steven M. Bellovin
To: decvax!duke!unc!space@Berkeley
Subject: Solar Sails
The November 21 issue of "Science News" has a fairly long (by its
standards) article on solar sails.  According to the article, the
Mariner 3 and 4 spacecraft were designed to use solar vanes to help
with attitude control; unfortunately, neither probe worked right.  But
light pressure was used to roll-stabilize the Mariner 10 in 1974 when
problems with the attitude-control system threatened to exhaust its
supply of steering gas.  Without "solar-sailing mode", it probably
could not have completed its Mercury flybys.
The World Space Foundation is designing and building prototype solar
sails; they hope to get a free launch on an Ariane or some other
vehicle, much as the OSCAR satellites have been launched.  The American
Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics even purchased a shuttle
"Getaway Special" for a sail, but NASA ruled it didn't qualify,
apparently because the specials could not be used to deploy structures
outside the shuttle.
------------------------------
End of SPACE Digest
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 Bruce Jones, Henry Spencer, David Wiseman.


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