3 ms·
Can you "tack" a solar sail? Niven/Pournelle had a cool idea in The Mote in God's Eye of charging your craft when traversing a magnetic field to change directi
by hyperpallium 7y ago
Can you "tack" a solar sail?
Niven/Pournelle had a cool idea in The Mote in God's Eye of charging your craft when traversing a magnetic field to change direction (not specific to sails, but another passive technique).
- msl 7y agoUsing Earth's magnetic field for attitude control is already a thing [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetorquer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetorquer
- apkessl1 7y agoIn fact, that’s exactly what LightSail is using to control its attitude: http://www.planetary.org/blogs/jason-davis/2016/20160418-lightsail-test-success.html http://www.planetary.org/blogs/jason-davis/2016/20160418-lig...