[FPSPACE] FW: Centauri Dreams - NanoSail-D: Duplicate Exists, Needs to Fly

[LARRY KLAES]

>From: Centauri Dreams <gilster at mindspring.com>
>Reply-To: Centauri Dreams <gilster at mindspring.com>
>To: ljk4 at msn.com
>Subject: Centauri Dreams
>Date: Tue, 19 Aug 2008 14:03:13 -0500 (CDT)
>
>Centauri Dreams
>
>///////////////////////////////////////////

>NanoSail-D: Duplicate Exists, Needs to Fly
>
>Posted: 19 Aug 2008 07:43 AM CDT
>http://www.centauri-dreams.org/?p=2472
>
>
>Remember the great scene in Contact, when the fabulously rich S. R. Hadden 
>(John Hurt), who funded the stargate device that has been destroyed by 
>sabotage, says Why build one when you can build two for twice the price? He 
>then reveals the existence of a second facility off the coast of Japan, 
>which is what Ellie Arroway uses on her interstellar trip. So is solar sail 
>expert Greg Matloff a ringer for S. R. Hadden? Read on.
>
>Gregs recent phone call may not have been as dramatic as that scene in 
>Contact, but he was able to tell me that although NanoSail-D did perish in 
>the SpaceX Falcon explosion, there is a second sail. Marshall Space Flight 
>Center built two. So now were in the energizing position of having a second 
>chance at a sail deployment in space, and it could be done soon via the 
>next Falcon launch, if SpaceX will cooperate in the enterprise.
>
>And heres why they should: Launching a payload on the Space Shuttle costs 
>approximately $10,000 per pound. Thats pricey, and the whole premise behind 
>the Falcon is that it can cut launch costs to as little as a tenth of this. 
>Now the NanoSail-D package is a scant ten pounds (it can be carried around 
>in a suitcase!). If you were working with full Space Shuttle prices (and 
>remember to factor in the fact that the sail has to be delivered to 
>Kwajalein for launch), that still works out to something not terribly far 
>over $100,000 dollars. Call it $150,000 to be safe.
>
>But SpaceX aims to achieve a tenth of that cost. So lets be extravagant and 
>build in some margins, and we still arrive at no more than $15,000 to put 
>NanoSail-D into space on the next Falcon.
>
>Will SpaceX be willing to help out the doughty team of solar sail 
>researchers at Marshall and elsewhere, especially in light of the $20 
>million infusion it has recently received from the Founders Fund? This is a 
>chance for the commercial space business to contribute hugely to our solar 
>sail effort, one that has stalled not because of technology  far from it  
>but because of funding issues. We need to get a sail into space for 
>deployment tests and NanoSail-D is our best shot. A Shuttle launch may not 
>be in the cards, but a new Falcon is going to be flying soon. Lets hope 
>SpaceX and NASA can get NanoSail-Ds twin aboard that rocket.
>
>
>
>
>
>