Today marks the launch of the world’s First Solar Sail Spacecraft! This spacecraft literally sails using solar wind; the fotons generated by the Sun.
It impresses me to see that an idea used in one of the new Star Wars episodes is actually real life technology. I wonder if George Lucas was aware of the fact that his portrayal of an interstellar ship unfolding its sail was actually not too far fetched… I remember watching it (I think in Star Wars Episode 2) and getting quite excited about the prospect. To read about actual real life solar sailing really fascinates me.
- edit 22/6 – It appears the launch did not go too smoothly. Hopefully the Cosmos 1 made it! Check this site too, it’s somewhat slicker than the first site. Be sure to read the “Breaking News” page as well.
-edit 23/6 – Things are looking bleak. Michiel had an interesting read on the situation: a conspiracy theory perspective. Maybe “Ze Russianz” have simply launched some kind of spacecraft (e.g. spy satellite) that they did not want the world to know about. So they pretend to launch some fancy new technology and claim that something turned awry during launch. That conveniently explains why US STRATCOM did not observe the Cosmos 1 during launch. From planetary.org:

According to Cantrell, this could mean either that the spacecraft simply “is not there,” or that STRATCOM weren’t looking in the right place. “The spacecraft clearly wasn’t where we told them that it would be” said Cantrell, “but it is possible that it passed them by.”

How on earth is it possible that the so-called civilised countries of the world are discussing a lift on the present moratorium on whale hunting? Even though poaching on land has been banned for years now and most well-thinking individuals understand that killing large mammals is repulsively revoltingly reprehensibly repugnant (and that’s putting it mildly), it nevertheless seems likely that the IWC countries will allow Japan and Norway to resume full commercial hunting of these most majestic of animals known to Man.
This kind of news makes me incredibly sad. What is to become of our world when developed countries with high levels of welfare (Norway is the second-richest country in the world! Japan does reasonably well with rank 14) can be so misguided? Either I really don’t get it or something is terribly wrong…