NASA to launch Sunjammer

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Named after Arthur C. Clarke’s story “Sunjammer”, which had such a neat cover image when it first appeared in Boys Life:

When it was published in book form, though, he regrettably changed the title to “The Wind from the Sun”, apparently because Poul Anderson had already used “Sunjuammer” as a title.

This will be massively cool. I hope it gets good news coverage (but fear it won’t)

2

I’m glad to see this this is underway. Once we have proven, large-scale sails, a lot of potential opens up. Just having instrument platforms with effectively unlimited (if slow) maneuvering is enormous. Using them to survey NEAs is particularly promising, I think.

3

Disappointed it doesn’t look more like the solar sailers from TRON, but still cool.

4

This is highly suspicious. It reminds me of the time Mr. Burns tried to block out the sun over Springfield.