Solar Sailing as a sport.
- Thread starter Arowx
- Start date
A gentle cruise maybe, but hardly thrilling enough velocities to be a sport
Sport does not have to be thrilling, it can be slow and gentle but still require lots of skill.
What if it's a hybrid type of sailing, solar sails + photovoltaics + ionic drives, still slow compared to interstellar ships but could be quite nippy when navigating the Saturns rings or the asteroid belt.
And could different star types like pulsars, red giants or binary stars not provide more challenging 'weather'.
And could different star types like pulsars, red giants or binary stars not provide more challenging 'weather'.
A gentle cruise maybe, but hardly thrilling enough velocities to be a sport
Dunno, good old fashioned sail boats racing each other with nowt but the power of the wind are exciting, stick that in space and with big enough solar sails and youd get my attention.
A gentle cruise maybe, but hardly thrilling enough velocities to be a sport
I remember this Arthur C Clarke story being pretty exciting...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunjammer
Beautiful idea, I'd like to try this somtimes.
Who says that such a race needs to be fast to be thrilling? I don't think so.
Sailships nowadays can go faster than the wind that drives them. Does anybody know if that is true for a sunjammer or how fast it could be?
Any physicists around?
Who says that such a race needs to be fast to be thrilling? I don't think so.
Sailships nowadays can go faster than the wind that drives them. Does anybody know if that is true for a sunjammer or how fast it could be?
Any physicists around?
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Indeed. Golf is a sport, apparently.
The concept of a solar sail is that it uses the push of incoming photons as a propellant. Obviously each photon pushes with the spead of light against a solar sail. Theoretically lightspeed would be the max over VERY long times of constant accelleration. Practically that lies more in the order of 10% lightspeed I believe.
Even chess is considered to be a sport.
So an interstellar regatta might be a very very very very very very very very very very very very very very long race.
How about a course that starts at mars, saturn is the turning point and then head back to jupiter station for the finish.
Could that be done in a reasonable ammount of time?
Me, too. And there is the asteroid belt between mars and jupiter. That might do it.
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We could imagine some saturn rings race with many ships making one round trip for prestige or money. The trick would be to find a simple way to manage signs in space. Maybe coloring some asteroids on the way? :S
Brightly coloured (identical) 'marshal' ships piloted by the organisers?
would a solar sail race around say Mercury give the ships a boost (not to mention the pilots a suntan?)
Any ships whipping round the sun ala Star Trek to instigate time travel would have to be declared a foul obviously, though how to know...
Any ships whipping round the sun ala Star Trek to instigate time travel would have to be declared a foul obviously, though how to know...
Solar sails for powering ion engines rather than actually pushing the ships (without a keel and something to resist the keels sideways motion you couldn't tack or turn across the "wind")
However you could ban batteries and have to race take you behind planets into the shade where you could only rely on momentum and gravity assist.
You could pick up plenty of speed but it would also require very careful course plotting.
However you could ban batteries and have to race take you behind planets into the shade where you could only rely on momentum and gravity assist.
You could pick up plenty of speed but it would also require very careful course plotting.