Message-ID: <kaCc4FG00VcJQ5205G@andrew.cmu.edu>
Reply-To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU
From: space-request+@Andrew.CMU.EDU
To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU
Date: Sun, 29 Apr 90 01:52:19 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: SPACE Digest V11 #331

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 11 : Issue 331

Today's Topics:
		       Re: French art in orbit?
		  Sailing Race to Mars - is it True?
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Date: 28 Apr 90 21:19:12 GMT
From: clyde.concordia.ca!mcgill-vision!quiche!calvin!msdos@uunet.uu.net  (Mark SOKOLOWSKI)
Subject: Re: French art in orbit?

In article <45600009@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu> sfn20715@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu writes:
>
>I remember seeing something like this several years ago, so its definitely
>not new news.  If my memory serves me right (flame if I'm wrong) one of the
>earliest US satelites was a mylar balloon which was designed to be
>just shiny enough to be seen from the ground.  Is this the same circumstance?

I don't remember the name of the 2 satellites that were lauched in the 60's,
but I know they were deisgned to reflect radio waves and their mission was
a failure due to the rapid deflation provoked by micrometoeritic impacts.
(And don't forget the previous experiment was too satellize hundreds of 
millions of small needles...)

Mark
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Date: 27 Apr 90 22:58:36 GMT
From: swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!srhqla!quad1!ttidca!jackson%ttidcc.tti.com@ucsd.edu  (Dick Jackson)
Subject: Sailing Race to Mars - is it True?

Some quotes from an article in the Mar 24 New Scientist magazine:

"The British entry for a planned race to Mars has been judged the most
technically advanced and imaginative of entries submitted from around the
world. (The NS mag. is British by the way, in case you couldn't tell :->).
The Columbus 500 Space Sail Cup, for solar-powered spacecraft, will start
in 1992 as a celebration of Columbus's voyage to America 500 years
earlier."

"Cambridge Consultants Ltd won the approval of the committee organising the
race with a circular sail 250 metres in diameter."

"Cambridge Consultants is looking hard for sponsorship. Italy is
determined not to be left out this time - many firms have promised
financial assistance."

This is great if true.  Reading between the lines it seems perhaps only
a half baked project.  Does anyone know the scoop?  Especially -- who is
going to launch the sailing craft (the CC sail is said to fold into a
cylinder 4 x 4 meters)?

Dick Jackson

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End of SPACE Digest V11 #331
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