space@mit-mc (02/15/85)
From: Tom Wadlow <TAW@S1-A.ARPA> I read in one of the local papers that the SSI plan for space burial involved reducing the corpses to a very small size (roughly test-tube sized containers of ashes, I think) for placement in the orbital crypt. I wonder how much of a light sail it would take to reach system escape velocity for such a payload, given: - You don't care how long it takes. (After all, you're dead) - All systems are likely to be entirely passive. Ideally, you might like to engrave a message on the container, and have the sail be a good optical and EMF reflector, but you can probably avoid the necessity for guidance or beacons. This would be a dandelion-seed flight, going *away* from the Sun. - It must be launchable from Shuttle orbits. This may be the kicker. I recall reading that there is a minimum workable altitude for lightsails, due to residual atmospheric drag or something. An orbiting crypt might be nice, I suppose, but if you could send your remains as sort of a message-in-a-bottle on a flight to the stars, it would be a lot more attractive, I suspect. --Tom
al@ames.UUCP (Al Globus) (02/21/85)
> From: Tom Wadlow <TAW@S1-A.ARPA> > > I read in one of the local papers that the SSI plan for space burial > involved reducing the corpses to a very small size (roughly test-tube > sized containers of ashes, I think) for placement in the orbital crypt. > > I wonder how much of a light sail it would take to reach system escape > velocity for such a payload, given: > > - You don't care how long it takes. (After all, you're dead) > - All systems are likely to be entirely passive. Ideally, While in Earth orbit a light sail must do a lot of manuvering to keep accelating. This is obvious if you consider the geometric relationship of the Sun to anything in a planetary orbit as time passes.