fred (12/29/82)
The idea of building a solar sail and sending out instruments packages into space is very appealing. If it could be done cheaply enough so that 100,000 or so space enthusiast in this country could fund this sorta of project, it would really open up space exploration. As others have pointed out the first logical step would be building and testing out a Solar Sail. To that end I remember reading that one of the many pro space groups, I believe the World Space Foundation or maybe it is the World Space Federation???, has been working for the last few years on designing a Solar Sail to be launched from the shuttle. I've seen photographs of their proto- types so they are quite a bit further along than just dreaming. Does anyone else have better information about the correct organization and what progress they have made? It would help the current discussion on the net a great deal. Fred ABI/INDY