The electric sail (ESAIL), invented by Dr. Pekka Janhunen at the Finnish Kumpula Space Centre in 2006, produces propulsion power for a spacecraft by utilizing the solar wind. The sail features electrically charged long and ...
Space Exploration
Jan 8, 2013
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Solar sails, much like anti-matter and ion engines appear at first glance to only exist in science fiction. Many technologies from science fiction however, become science fact.
Space Exploration
Oct 14, 2011
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It's a calm and peaceful night. Stars twinkle in the velvety darkness overhead as a distant plane blinks silently on the horizon. You could almost hear a pin drop. That is, until the flare.
Space Exploration
Feb 3, 2011
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Wednesday, Jan. 19 at 11:30 a.m. EST, engineers at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., confirmed that the NanoSail-D nanosatellite ejected from Fast Affordable Scientific and Technology Satellite, FASTSAT. The ...
Space Exploration
Jan 20, 2011
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The European union has selected the Finnish Meteorological Institute to lead an international space effort whose goal is to build the largest and fastest man-made device.
Energy & Green Tech
Dec 9, 2010
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A new golden age of sailing may be about to begin - in space. Future missions to explore the outer planets could employ fleets of 'data-clippers', manoeuvrable spacecraft equipped with solar sails, to ship vast quantities ...
Space Exploration
Sep 21, 2010
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Propelled by sunlight pressure, large lightweight sails made of ultrathin aluminum-coated plastic could one day take probes to the edge of our solar system and other stars.
Space Exploration
Sep 3, 2010
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Shape memory alloys can "remember" a condition. If they are deformed, a temperature change can be enough to bring them back to their original shape. A simulation calculates the characteristics of these materials.
Engineering
Jul 13, 2009
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Thin metallic tethers for Coulomb drag devices that tow satellites and spacecraft can now be produced more easily than before. Scientists of the Finnish Meteorological Institute have developed a method to produce multi-wire ...
Space Exploration
Mar 25, 2020
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Spacecraft outfitted with sails and propelled by the sun are no longer the stuff of science fiction or theoretical space missions. Now, a Rochester Institute of Technology researcher is taking solar sailing to the next level ...
Space Exploration
Jul 16, 2018
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