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Solar Sails Chase Down Interstellar Visitors

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• Solar Sails Chase Down Interstellar Visitors

• Solar Sails Chase Down Interstellar Visitors

  DrTonyMcCaffrey > August 4th, 2021, 09:18 AM

  A fleet of solar sails are set to chase down interstellar visitors such as asteroids and comets to get a close look. When the strangely shaped object, Oumuamua, passed through our system in late 2017, we could only get long-range measurements. No ships were ready to race it down and get a close-up look. Hence, many things about it will forever remain a mystery.

• RE: Solar Sails Chase Down Interstellar Visitors

  Michael > August 18th, 2021, 09:36 AM

  Is there a theoretical effective range for a solar sail? How do they get back closer to Earth, or should they simply orbit the sun forever?

• RE: Solar Sails Chase Down Interstellar Visitors

  DrTonyMcCaffrey > August 19th, 2021, 02:55 PM

  Good questions. I don't know.

• RE: Solar Sails Chase Down Interstellar Visitors

  Michael > September 2nd, 2021, 11:39 PM

  The cool thing about a solar sail is that it doesn't need an on-board power source or energy supply. But if there were a lightweight system that could scoop up energy from deeper space and use that to generate a focused beam powerful enough to propel the craft forward, then the solar sail fleet could ascend and descend throughout the solar system (move toward and away from the sun) at fairly consistent speeds.
  
  I'm being overly simplistic, obviously, but maybe magnetic fields could be used to scoop up the particles needed to power such a lightweight drive. The old Bussard ramjet model uses magnetic fields to scoop up hydrogen particles for fuel. Maybe solar and cosmic radiation could be converted to light energy somehow? So instead of scooping up hydrogen, you scoop up radiation.
  
  Just a thought. The physics is really beyond my ken.
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