Solar Sail???????

Puke · #1 January 8th, 2001, 04:35 AM

quote:
Originally posted by apache:
the solar sail is actually less ridiculous than a quantum reactor or 'collapsing' a black hole, so it should stay in the game. However, it should definitely not be allowed to work in nebula and black hole sectors.

but working on magnetic pricipals as you say, or working on other field / wave related principals it could function without a star. granted, it might have a hard time in deep space, but if nebulae are cool enough to disable shields or sensors then they certainly have enough background radiation puttering about to power a sail. we have definitly observed black holes cranking out all kinds of radio / microwave / high frequency wave output, so they should not have any problem powering a sail either.

as someone else pointed out, the simple answer is to look at it a little more abstractly, and maybe change the description from 'bounces photons at 90 degrees to generate force' to something more like 'manipulates naturally occuring fields and background radiation to indirectly propell a ship.'

Emperor Zodd · #2 January 8th, 2001, 05:10 AM

I think the solar sail should only work when a ship runs out of fuel. And should be standard technology to all races. Then that would give ships a reason for still being able to move 1 space when they run out of fuel.

Marik Wahoooka · #3 January 8th, 2001, 06:08 AM

Actually, you can't get a 180 arc of motion with a solar sail. Sailing on earth only works because of the resistance the water provides against the hull. Without that force, all boats would always move in the direction of the wind. In the case of space, there isn't anything providing that restoring force, so the ability to use only a component of the force goes bye-bye.

Pity though... Solar sails just seem so frickin cool. Of course, if they are picking up distant stars, one could set them to pick up certain wavelengths and then coast in what ever direction you wished simply by finding a proper star and tuning the receptors to it. Hm...

I'll build an intergalactic spaceship, try it out, and get back to you.

Jubala · #4 January 8th, 2001, 06:52 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Marik Wahoooka:
I'll build an intergalactic spaceship, try it out, and get back to you.

And was the Last ever heard from Marik Wahooka...

Baron Munchausen · #5 January 8th, 2001, 07:01 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Puke:
but working on magnetic pricipals as you say, or working on other field / wave related principals it could function without a star. granted, it might have a hard time in deep space, but if nebulae are cool enough to disable shields or sensors then they certainly have enough background radiation puttering about to power a sail. we have definitly observed black holes cranking out all kinds of radio / microwave / high frequency wave output, so they should not have any problem powering a sail either.

as someone else pointed out, the simple answer is to look at it a little more abstractly, and maybe change the description from 'bounces photons at 90 degrees to generate force' to something more like 'manipulates naturally occuring fields and background radiation to indirectly propell a ship.'

I suppose you could call it "Electromagnetic Sail" then, and make a graphic image of some big magnetic coils to replace the sail thing. But then it doesn't belong in the stellar harnessing tech field.

apache · #6 January 8th, 2001, 07:09 AM

Actually, sailboats do not sail with the wind pushing the sail. They operate by the wind passing over the sail, like air passing over a wing. In otherwords, sails are nothing more than airfoils. Water resistance really has nothing to do with it. In fact, a sailboat makes the best speed when the wind is blowing perpendicular to the direction of travel. The only direction a sailboat can't travel is directly into the wind.
Anyways, I may be wrong about the actual arc of motion allowed by a passive sail, but the way it would move in other directions is by orienting the sail in an angle to the path of the solar wind. The wind particles hit, and bounce off of the sail, and so by Newton's 3rd law, generate an equal and opposite force. The way the sail is oriented determines the direction the desired reaction force will be in. And so you can move the ship in directions not along the path of the solar wind.

Trachmyr · #7 January 8th, 2001, 08:41 AM

And don't forget about tacking! Zig-Zaging at angles allowing a sail to gain thrust, making the overall direction to be towards the sun...

BTW, I made solar sails a normal engine type.. with low speed (but some bonous movement, which means a lot since I use the "Engines Needed per Move" field in vehiclesize.txt), no supply usage, and made them appear at Stellar Manip 2... reducing Stellar Manip to 4 levels, and reducing cost from 10K to 5K... Gives a nice alternative for utility vessels.

[This message has been edited by Trachmyr (edited 08 January 2001).]