🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Oct28.202753.10814@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU> rbw3q@rayleigh.mech.Virginia.EDU (Brad Whitehurst) writes:
>>Well, so solar sails are just "driven by radiation pressure".  I'd heard
>>that (as well as solar wind) before.  

>	Well, I don't have any numbers, but don't forget the "solar
>wind" of particles streaming from the sun.  I would think it would
>have a significant contribution.

The particle momentum is less than 1% that of the radiation pressure.
However, there is a idea for using it (Zubrin's Magsail): The particles
are charged, and interact with magnetic fields. In theory, a loop of
current-carrying wire would refelect particles out to a few times
the radius of the loop. While the momentum transfer from the solar
wind is low, the mass of a wire loop (as opposed to a reflective
sheet in a solar sail) is _much_ lower. This system should get
overall accelerations higher than those of a solar sail, if you can
use a passively-cooled superconductor for the loop (that is, a
nitrogen-temperature superconductor farther from the sun than, roughly,
Venus.)

                                                 Frank Crary
                                                 CU Boulder