markreiff:

Thank you for the information, it is of interest. Certainly this could
be used delivery of large amounts of cargo to Mars. Maybe processed
materials could originate from our Moon for final forming on Mars. I
watched an hour long show on the Discovery Channel that covered weather
on Mars and other planets, it outlined 180-250 km/hour Sand[blasting]
storms on Mars. That means Mars bases will have to be underground.
That will take Heavy Machinery to build them and processed materials
shaped into the tunnels at the construction site.

Returning to SPS's, where could someone be found who knows the financial
side of the Power and Energy Industries?

>
>"Solar Super-Sail Could Reach Mars in a Month"
>New Scientist
>http://www.newscientist.com/channel/mech-tech/mg18524846.500
>
>: A Lick of paint could help a spacecraft powered by a solar sail get
>: from Earth to Mars in just one month, seven times faster than the
>: craft that took the rovers Spirit and Opportunity to the Red Planet.
>
>: Gregory Benford of the University of California, Irvine, and his
>: brother James, who runs aerospace research firm Microwave Sciences
>: in Lafayette, California, envisage beaming microwave energy up from
>: Earth to boil off volatile molecules from a specially formulated
>: paint applied to the sail. The recoil of the molecules as they
>: streamed off the sail would give it a significant kick that would
>: help the craft on its way. "It's a different way of thinking about
>: propulsion," Gregory Benford says. "We leave the engine on the
>: ground."
>
>: Solar sails are in essence nothing more than giant mirrors. Photons
>: of light from the sun bounce off the surface, giving the sail a
>: gentle push. It was while developing a solar sail five years ago
>: that the brothers stumbled upon their idea for enhancing the effect.
>
>: The pair were testing a very thin carbon-mesh sail by firing
>: microwaves at it. To their surprise, the sail experienced a force
>: several times stronger than they expected. They eventually worked
>: out that the heat from the microwave beam was causing carbon
>: monoxide gas to escape from the sail's surface, and that the recoil
>: from the emerging gas molecules was giving the sail an extra push.
>
>: In a forthcoming issue of the journal Acta Astronautica, the
>: Benfords explain how a sail covered with a paint designed to emit
>: gas when it is heated might propel a spacecraft to Mars in just a
>: month. A rocket would take the craft to low-Earth orbit,
>: 300 kilometres up. After the craft unfurls a solar sail 100 metres
>: across, a transmitter on Earth would fire microwaves at it to heat
>: it up. The Benfords calculate a one-hour burst of microwaves could
>: accelerate the craft to 60 kilometres per second, faster than any
>: interplanetary spacecraft to date.
>
>: The feat would require a 60-megawatt microwave beam with a similar
>: diameter to the sail. It would also have to be capable of tracking
>: the craft as it accelerated away. But this power level could not be
>: delivered by any existing microwave transmission system. The deep-
>: space communications network that NASA uses to communicate with
>: Mars rovers and the Cassini probe now orbiting Saturn can only
>: manage half a megawatt. The Benfords say the power could be ramped
>: up in future and hope to persuade NASA to consider doing this as
>: part of a future upgrade to the network.
>
>: A further challenge is how to formulate the evaporating paint. The
>: ideal material would lock up large amounts of a light gas like
>: hydrogen and only release it at very high temperature, when the
>: high speed of the gas molecules would maximise the recoil. Ideally
>: all the paint would boil away, leaving a micrometre-thin sail to
>: continue the voyage to Mars.
>
>Mark Reiff
>
>


--
------------ Wolter Works - Always Innovating -------------
- Industry and Commerce Internet Invention & Innovation
- Internet Marketing Product Concepts & Implementation

mailto:johnswolter@...

John Wolter, President
1531 Jones Drive
Ann Arbor, MI 48105-1871 USA
1-734-665-1263

Copyright 2004 John S. Wolter

Neither this information block, the typed name of the sender,
nor anything else in this message is intended to constitute an
electronic signature unless a specific statement to the contrary
is included in this message.