Bill Nye's Project LightSail - spaceship that rides solar radiation

[Bouzoo]

Bill Nye has been talking about this for a long time and it's finally ready for testing. If this works, it could change the way we travel in space. It is a pretty ambitious program.

 

 

 

 

Back in 1976, famed physicist and astronomer Carl Sagan appeared on The Tonight Show to explain a new method of space travel. Using a technique called solar sailing, Sagan described a craft that used a large reflective sheet to "work exactly as a sailboat does," harnessing radiation from the sun to travel around our solar system. Now, almost forty years later, a solar-sailing spacecraft like the one Sagan described is about to have its first test flight.

 

The privately funded LightSail project is the creation of The Planetary Society — the non-profit group founded by Sagan and other astronomical luminaries, and currently headed by Bill Nye of "the Science Guy" fame — and aims to offer a demonstration of the potential of solar sailing as a faster and cheaper method of space propulsion than chemical rockets with two small spacecraft built by Stellar Exploration Inc. The first of these is tentatively scheduled to launch on May 20th.

 

 

How it works

 

 

The crafts have two main parts — four triangular Mylar sails that allow them to ride solar radiation, and small square "CubeSat" satellites that will open four arms to unfurl the sheeting. While solar sailing allows craft to travel toward, away from, and alongside the sun just as a sailboat can with the wind, crafts equipped with the technology still need a rocket-shaped shove to get out of our atmosphere. For its test flight, the LightSail will be riding an Atlas V rocket into the upper reaches of the atmosphere, a vehicle provided by Boeing and Lockheed Martin's joint space venture, United Launch Alliance. The final version of the craft will be ensconced inside another satellite, called Prox-1, and carried into space by SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket.

 

 

 

Video from 1976.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=99&v=-cEXKu_Onlk

 

What it's all about

 

 

 

What do you think about it?

 

And he did a Kickstarter

 

 

 

 

Sources:

 

http://www.theverge.com/2015/5/7/8564119/bill-nye-lightsail-project-solar-sail-test-flight

 

http://sail.planetary.org/

 

[kpreg]

Quite a bright idea, I hope It radiates into the entire space industry.

[NumLock21]

Treasure Planet?

[RatedBlam]

Space news is always nice, but does it have an ls1.

[MrDynamicMan]

Jeez. If Nye is anywhere near as infuriating in real life as he is on TV...

But anyway, this is a pretty neat idea, even though it's pretty damn old.

[xeromynd]

tl;dr =  Bill Nye's gonna build Count Dooku's Solar Sailer

 

[dalekphalm]

Jeez. If Nye is anywhere near as infuriating in real life as he is on TV...

But anyway, this is a pretty neat idea, even though it's pretty damn old.

What makes in infuriating on TV? Just the way he's overly energetic in his attitude? Or something specific?

[Trik'Stari]

Jeez. If Nye is anywhere near as infuriating in real life as he is on TV...

But anyway, this is a pretty neat idea, even though it's pretty damn old.

I find him annoying as well.

 

Still, good to see some people are working on things important to the future of the species. We need to start colonizing some sh*t. I'm still waiting for an ILC (International Lunar Colony)

[Dabombinable]

This would only work in the inner part of the solar system, so its not that practical for actual space travel.

[niofalpha]

Bill Nye = Bae <3

OT: Cool! Lots of Space stuff this week

[Ertman]

This would only work in the inner part of the solar system, so its not that practical for actual space travel.

isn't that where we would want to travel anyways?

Might still be better than only burning rockets and using gravity slingshots to get to the outer solar system. Adding an additional propulsion device/mechanism might be useful.

[What's a GPU?]

Although the project is headed by Bill Nye, I think it would be more accurately described as Carl Sagan's solar ship.

[Ostwind]

That would work until you remember the micro debris that zooms through the everywhere at a bajillion miles per fast

[Delusional Phil]

Treasure Planet?

 

Someday ... That will come true ... 

[Oasis]

Didn't watch the videos, so I don't know if they address this, but here it goes:

 

1. How does it slow down? Is there an attached rocket to counteract the sail?

2. Someone already brought it up but, how long till its shredded by micro debris?

3. How will it be faster than chemical rockets?

[DeScruff]

Didn't watch the videos, so I don't know if they address this, but here it goes:

 

1. How does it slow down? Is there an attached rocket to counteract the sail?

2. Someone already brought it up but, how long till its shredded by micro debris?

3. How will it be faster than chemical rockets?

I don't think "fast" is the idea.

I'm picturing the idea is to have something that can run cheaply and/or go a long distance without refueling. Maybe even use it just for the initial push to a direction so they don't have to use the limited fuel. I can't imagine that little thing weighs as much as a couple of chemical rockets so that might cut costs of sending it into space.

[Albatross]

So he's riding off the ideas of another man?  :lol:  I hope it is successful because it could help us figure out a far more efficient way to travel the universe and secure our future.

 

But Bill Nye is an idiot though, and needs to be punched. He seems to think all homeschoolers are ignorant and that that is because they are all religious raised by crazy Bible-thumpers/religious people. Apparently he prefers the institutionalized schools teaching our kids incorrect history, anti-white sentiments and other crap. Wait...oh, I get it, that must be why 1.5 million kids drop out of school a year—because they get so smart they don't need it anymore! All that common core must have helped those kids achieve imaginable success!

 

[AlwaysFSX]

Yeeeaaaaaaaaah, this is nothing new. :mellow:

[ZetZet]

Didn't watch the videos, so I don't know if they address this, but here it goes:

1. How does it slow down? Is there an attached rocket to counteract the sail?

2. Someone already brought it up but, how long till its shredded by micro debris?

3. How will it be faster than chemical rockets?

most spaceships we have designed are either not planned to slow down ever or they slow down during series of burns or on entry to the atmosphere. This kind of project would probably just go full speed to some planet and then catch the orbit to sit there. Maybe do few burns to decrease the speed. Does not look like it would ever land.

[ZetZet]

But Bill Nye is an idiot though, and needs to be punched. He seems to think all homeschoolers are ignorant and that that is because they are all religious raised by crazy Bible-thumpers/religious people. Apparently he prefers the institutionalized schools teaching our kids incorrect history, anti-white sentiments and other crap. Wait...oh, I get it, that must be why 1.5 million kids drop out of school a year—because they get so smart they don't need it anymore! All that common core must have helped those kids achieve imaginable success!

So you think kids should not go to school because some schools teach poorly? And what does punching him accomplish? generally bill nye is still right people who don't go to school perform worse in life. Maybe you should stand up so that schools teach well and everyone can go to one.

[Albatross]

So you think kids should not go to school because some schools teach poorly? And what does punching him accomplish? generally bill nye is still right people who don't go to school perform worse in life. Maybe you should stand up so that schools teach well and everyone can go to one.

 

No, that is not at all what I meant. American schools are failing, hard. The teachers do not care enough to make sure the kids are actually learning something while the schools do not attempt to be engaging or challenging enough for those who need as well as supportive and patient for those who need it. It isn't "some", it is an outrageous failure across the country. In my state most of the kids graduate without knowing how to read. This is not acceptable.

 

That's not what he said, by the way, and no even that is wrong had he actually said. He quite clearly on two different occasions indicated that homeschooled children are ignorant and mean nothing to the world because they are "singular", that they offer nothing and that was 1) when a homeschool asked him something on facebook (or some media site like that) and 2) on live television when asked straight out what he thought.

 

Just look at his ignorance!

 

 

Bill Nye The Science Guy:  "Use your judgment. The rest of us out here, want your kids to appreciate society and the importance of working together in school and in life. A person working alone will probably not build the future 797 airplane, for example. It takes people who can work with and around people. Carry on."

(in response to a homeschooler asking him a question on his facebook)

 

TV SPOT >

They’re holding the kids back. These kids will not be able to participate in the future in the same way that kids from other school systems — New York, Maryland, exotic places like that — [can]. Because they will not have this fundamental idea that you can question things, that you can think critically, that you can use skeptical thought to learn about nature. [These children] will have to suppress everything they can see in nature to try and get a worldview that’s compatible with the adults, in whom they trust …At some point, you smirk about it, because it’s so silly … but yet these people work to get their points of view in textbooks and in school curricula.

 

 

This is not only a horrible generalization but proven wrong when comparing the standards of a homeschooler's education to that of nowaday public school education. Homeschoolers tend to care more for their education as well, and seek out knowledge whereas nowadays kids in school use the building as a social hub rather than a department for learning and growing. And the teachers do nothing to discourage it.

 

The poop is in the pudding but this idiot not only believes in an inaccurate myth about homeschoolers and homeschooling (anti-social religious retards) but also that they cannot and do not go out into the world to advance or do things "public kids" get to do.

 

Sources:

http://www.parentingscience.com/homeschooling-outcomes.html

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/aug/30/home-schooling-outstanding-results-national-tests/

http://www.nheri.org/research/research-facts-on-homeschooling.html

https://www.nmu.edu/education/sites/DrupalEducation/files/UserFiles/Moreau_Kathi_MP.pdf

https://www.home-school.com/news/homeschool-vs-public-school.php

 

I encourage you to look up the comparison of public vs homeschooled kids if you do not, in anyway, find my sources creditable.

 

Homeschoolers have individualized instruction which results in a higher capacity to learn, keep that in and advance in life. Because the parents care enough to make sure that they learn. There is a reason the military is seeking homeschoolers out, and the same with colleges; they are generally smarter than their public counter-parts. This is not the children's fault, this is the fault of our educational system and the lamebrains "teaching" the children. With things like common core existing no public child will ever receive proper education. It also doesn't help that most public schools treat children with learning disabilities like they are rude little monsters and send them to "time out" whenever they show a need to learn differently than the group they were bunched into or whenever they displayed their "difference" through actions.

 

So at the current state? It is probably best they don't go to public school. They don't get a good education there anymore. But Bill Nye's anti-religious sentiments are so strong it blocks his common sense and judgement and forces him to actually encourage children to become stupid and less challenging to the world around them.

 

And the punching part was a joke to show my irritation with the man. <_<

[mikeeginger]

And so it begins one step closer to star wars 

[ZetZet]

No, that is not at all what I meant. American schools are failing, hard. The teachers do not care enough to make sure the kids are actually learning something while the schools do not attempt to be engaging or challenging enough for those who need as well as supportive and patient for those who need it. It isn't "some", it is an outrageous failure across the country. In my state most of the kids graduate without knowing how to read. This is not acceptable.

 

That's not what he said, by the way, and no even that is wrong had he actually said. He quite clearly on two different occasions indicated that homeschooled children are ignorant and mean nothing to the world because they are "singular", that they offer nothing and that was 1) when a homeschool asked him something on facebook (or some media site like that) and 2) on live television when asked straight out what he thought.

 

Just look at his ignorance!

It does sound terrible. But homeschooling can also be terrible since there is no one to compete against. US school system sounds scary to an european though. 

[Albatross]

It does sound terrible. But homeschooling can also be terrible since there is no one to compete against. US school system sounds scary to an european though. 

 

What do you mean "no one to compete against"?

 

And yea, we used to be among the best, now were in the tenth or fifteenth spot in regards to our schooling system. Such a disappointment.

[ZetZet]

What do you mean "no one to compete against"?

 

And yea, we used to be among the best, now were in the tenth or fifteenth spot in regards to our schooling system. Such a disappointment.

Homeschooling has no set regulations no set tests anyone can pass there.