The solar sail and boom system developed by L'Garde Inc. of Tustin, Calif., is fully deployed during testing.
NASA ground-tests solar sails for space
By Martin Burkey
DAILY Staff Writer
mburkey@decaturdaily.com · 340-2441
HUNTSVILLE — Marshall Space Flight Center engineers and their industry partners have finished ground tests on a pair of futuristic solar sails that one day could push spacecraft around the solar system with nothing but sunlight.
Solar sails are a staple of science fiction, from the 1800s to a recent "Star Wars" movie.
NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center Photo
Blue lights beneath the system help illuminate the four triangular quadrants of the solar sail developed by ATK Space Sysems of Goleta, Calif.
In reality, packing up a thinner-than-paper sail — perhaps hundreds or thousands of square meters — into a container small enough to be launched into space efficiently and then deploying it without tearing it is harder than it appears in the movies.
NASA officials said both sails, which used different materials and different deployment methods, succeeded with no problems, and they called the tests a critical milestone in putting solar sails to practical use.
As a canvas sail uses wind to push a sailing ship, solar sails are powered by sunlight. When the light reflects off a sail made of material 40 to 100 times thinner than a sheet of paper, the energy from light particles known as photons is transferred to the sail. It's an incredibly small push, but it's a continuous push, enabling a sail to reach 100,000 mph, hover, or do other maneuvers with no onboard fuel.
NASA's two 65-by-65-foot experimental sails look like large thin pieces of aluminum foil supported by a thin framework. The two competing builders were ATK Space Systems of Goleta, Calif., and L'Garde Inc. of Tustin, Calif. The tests were conducted in the world's largest space simulation chamber at NASA's Glenn Research Center in Ohio. It can simulate both the vacuum and temperature extremes in space.
L'Garde's Mylar sail used an inflatable frame that was heated before inflation and then became still in cold space conditions. ATK's sail used a coiled graphite boom to support an aluminized, temperature-resistant material called CP-1 produced by SRS Technologies of Huntsville.
Marshall engineers are interested in solar sails as a way to reduce the cost, weight and travel times involved in future space exploration. The tests this year were the largest sails ever to undergo deployment testing, said Edward E. Montgomery IV, technology area manager for solar sail propulsion at Marshall.
"We went through deployment with motors and gears, all the functionality a solar sail would need," he said. "The size, 20 meters, is larger than has been done anywhere else before. It is important for us to test on the ground in as relevant an environment as we can, before we go to space. We were really just finding out the things we don't know. I could give you a long list of things that might have happened. All mechanisms when very cold have a tendency to freeze up. In particular-electrical charges and static charges build and dissipate differently."
Compact packing
For instance, in order to be launched from Earth, giant sails would have to be folded many times and packed up in a small area. Air escaping into space during launch could create a bubble that would rip the flimsy sail material, he said.
Practical applications would require still larger sails, perhaps 500 feet on a side, he said. But NASA's test chamber is the world's largest and it could only hold a 65-foot-wide sail.
On the ATK design using CP-1, the booms used to deploy the sail were composite trusses like fishing rods that deployed like coiled springs. The L'Garde design used Mylar sails, similar to an inflatable party balloon but much thinner, attached to inflatable booms like giant party horns.
The first mission for a solar sail could be a warning satellite stationed between the Earth and Sun to warn of solar storms, Montgomery said. A satellite that does that job now is at the end of its operational life. A 100-meter solar sail at the right place could increase the warning time from 30 minutes to two hours, he said.
A second possible mission is to send a scientific satellite into orbit around the Sun's poles, a mission that would normally require a lot of conventional liquid fuel, Montgomery said.
NASA is still considering whether to use solar sail technology on those missions, Montgomery said.
NASA already has competition. The Planetary Society funded construction of a solar sail spacecraft in Russia. It was supposed to go into space atop a Russian submarine-launched rocket on June 21, but the rocket engine failed before the spacecraft reached orbit. The space-interest group vows to rebuild and launch on another rocket.
2005-10-28
Man-Portable Laser Weapon - Cool Idea, Gay Acronym (PHaSR)
New technology dazzles aggressors: "New technology dazzles aggressors
Capt. Drew F. Goettler, of the Air Force Research Laboratory' Directed Energy Directorate, demonstrates the Personnel Halting and Stimulation Response, or PHaSR, a non-lethal illumination technology developed by the laboratory's ScorpWorks team. The technology is the first man-portable, non-lethal deterrent weapon intended for protecting troops and controlling hostile crowds. The laser light used in the weapon temporarily impairs aggressors by illuminating or 'dazzling' individuals, removing their ability to see the laser source. (AF photo)
Blackanthem.com, KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M., October 27, 2005
A laser technology being developed by Air Force Research Laboratory employees at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M. will be the first man-portable, non-lethal deterrent weapon intended for protecting troops and controlling hostile crowds.
The weapon, developed by the laboratory's Directed Energy Directorate, employs a two-wavelength laser system and is the first of its kind as a hand-held, single-operator system for troop and perimeter defense. The laser light used in the weapon temporarily impairs aggressors by illuminating or 'dazzling' individuals, removing their ability to see the laser source.
The first two prototypes of the Personnel Halting and Stimulation Response, or PHaSR, were built at Kirtland last month and delivered to the laboratory's Human Effectiveness Directorate at Brooks City Base, Texas, and the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate at Quantico, Va. for testing.
'The future is here with PHaSR,' said program manager Capt. Thomas Wegner. Wegner is also the ScorpWorks flight commander within the Laser Division of the directorate. ScorpWorks is a unit of military scientists and engineers tha"
Capt. Drew F. Goettler, of the Air Force Research Laboratory' Directed Energy Directorate, demonstrates the Personnel Halting and Stimulation Response, or PHaSR, a non-lethal illumination technology developed by the laboratory's ScorpWorks team. The technology is the first man-portable, non-lethal deterrent weapon intended for protecting troops and controlling hostile crowds. The laser light used in the weapon temporarily impairs aggressors by illuminating or 'dazzling' individuals, removing their ability to see the laser source. (AF photo)
Blackanthem.com, KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M., October 27, 2005
A laser technology being developed by Air Force Research Laboratory employees at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M. will be the first man-portable, non-lethal deterrent weapon intended for protecting troops and controlling hostile crowds.
The weapon, developed by the laboratory's Directed Energy Directorate, employs a two-wavelength laser system and is the first of its kind as a hand-held, single-operator system for troop and perimeter defense. The laser light used in the weapon temporarily impairs aggressors by illuminating or 'dazzling' individuals, removing their ability to see the laser source.
The first two prototypes of the Personnel Halting and Stimulation Response, or PHaSR, were built at Kirtland last month and delivered to the laboratory's Human Effectiveness Directorate at Brooks City Base, Texas, and the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate at Quantico, Va. for testing.
'The future is here with PHaSR,' said program manager Capt. Thomas Wegner. Wegner is also the ScorpWorks flight commander within the Laser Division of the directorate. ScorpWorks is a unit of military scientists and engineers tha"
Iran Down on Israel - Who Knew?
FrontPage magazine.com :: Iran Calls for a New Holocaust by Robert Spencer: "Iran Calls for a New Holocaust
By Robert Spencer
FrontPageMagazine.com October 28, 2005
The same day that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared at a conference in Tehran entitled "The World without Zionism" that Israel should be destroyed, an Islamic Jihad suicide attacker murdered at least five people in the Israeli city of Hadera. No doubt Ahmadinejad had this kind of thing in mind when he stated that "there is no doubt that the new wave (of attacks) in Palestine will wipe off this stigma (Israel) from the face of the Islamic world": if he condemns attacks against civilian non-combatants, he has kept it to himself.
Imagine if George W. Bush had announced that he intended to wipe Iraq, or any other nation, off the map: the domestic and international outcry that would follow would effectively end his presidency. But in the context of Israel the world has always had a higher tolerance for such talk. The Hamas Charter states that its goal is to "raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine," and quotes Muslim Brotherhood founder Hasan Al-Banna: "Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it." Hamas attacked Israel with 113 suicide bombers from 1993 to 2005 in pursuit of this end. Yet some Western analysts have actually advocated Hamas" inclusion in the political process in the Palestinian Authority, as long as the group renounces violence. Is the obliteration of Israel more acceptable if it takes place without violence?
And of course, Ahmadinejad wasn�t saying anything new, as he himself made plain by invoking the Ayatollah Khomeini: "As the Imam said," the President reminded his hearers, "Israel must be wiped off the map." In 1979"
By Robert Spencer
FrontPageMagazine.com October 28, 2005
The same day that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared at a conference in Tehran entitled "The World without Zionism" that Israel should be destroyed, an Islamic Jihad suicide attacker murdered at least five people in the Israeli city of Hadera. No doubt Ahmadinejad had this kind of thing in mind when he stated that "there is no doubt that the new wave (of attacks) in Palestine will wipe off this stigma (Israel) from the face of the Islamic world": if he condemns attacks against civilian non-combatants, he has kept it to himself.
Imagine if George W. Bush had announced that he intended to wipe Iraq, or any other nation, off the map: the domestic and international outcry that would follow would effectively end his presidency. But in the context of Israel the world has always had a higher tolerance for such talk. The Hamas Charter states that its goal is to "raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine," and quotes Muslim Brotherhood founder Hasan Al-Banna: "Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it." Hamas attacked Israel with 113 suicide bombers from 1993 to 2005 in pursuit of this end. Yet some Western analysts have actually advocated Hamas" inclusion in the political process in the Palestinian Authority, as long as the group renounces violence. Is the obliteration of Israel more acceptable if it takes place without violence?
And of course, Ahmadinejad wasn�t saying anything new, as he himself made plain by invoking the Ayatollah Khomeini: "As the Imam said," the President reminded his hearers, "Israel must be wiped off the map." In 1979"
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