Sunjammer - dystopian dream machine

If NASA faked the moon landings, does the agency have any credibility at all? Was the Space Shuttle program also a hoax? Is the International Space Station another one? Do not dismiss these hypotheses offhand. Check out our wider NASA research and make up your own mind about it all.
dblitz
Member
Posts: 248
Joined: Sat Apr 27, 2013 2:32 am

Sunjammer - dystopian dream machine

Unread post by dblitz »

I checked out space.com for a bit a laugh today and I wasn't disappointed, apparently black holes have hair. Mmm... very masonic. Anyway, I found this article as well:

Sunjammer, World's Largest Solar Sail, Passes Key Test for 2015 Launch

http://www.space.com/23162-nasa-sunjamm ... plete.html

There is a video and I'll talk about that later but for now, the 'facts:'

From the article, (me in bold):
When Sunjammer launches in 2015, it will be the largest solar sail ever flown. Covering an area of almost 13,000 square feet (1,200 square meters), the full sail will span approximately a third the length of a football field. Despite its size, the enormous sail will be only about five millionths of a meter thick, keeping its weight down to 70 pounds (31 kilograms).
Sunjammer will monitor solar activity as it demonstrates the validity of relying solely on low-cost, propellantless solar winds for spacecraft navigation.

In one general direction only, and away from what it is observing.

Ultimately, Sunjammer could form a part of a fleet of solar sail crafts providing an early warning system for space weather.

Hey yeah, when they dissapear from NASA's monitors because their electronics have been fried by a solar storm, we will know in advance that we are screwed.
Here is an image of the open sail:

Image

Check out the black pole on the right of the chamber; the blue light from beneath the sail, that illuminates the rest of the area, does not illuminate the pole, but for some reason they have still taken it's presence into account by creating a kind of 'shadow' for it on the wall.

The lighting of this 'photograph' is some of the strangest I have ever seen, even by NASA standards.

--- --- ---

In the video, Charles Chafer, CEO of L'Garde's space services, talks a lot about involving people in the mission, moving from old polluting rockets to this 'propellantless' tech (still, it's going to take a rocket to get it into space right?) and how they will have most of the world watching as this craft deploys. Public involvement amounts to a 'very high tech camera out there' so people can go to L'Garde's website and watch the sail unfold in real time. I assume this event will also be televised.

It's only when we hear from Stephen Eisele, VP of marketing, Space Services INC. that we find out the real purpose of the Sunjammer mission, and why all those millions of people watching will feel 'intrinsically involved' and 'allow them to feel part of the mission.'

It turns out that the Sunjammer is essentially a giant space billboard.
Stephen Eisele:

'For the first time, a company will be able to take their brand and showcase it to the world using the medium of space as a unique platform, to advertise, to market and to reach out through multiple public participation missions.'
Charles Chafer, CEO, elaborates (or should I say, bullshits) further:

'For a private company to be involved, it's an enormous opportunity for visibility. Every NASA mission attracts hundreds of millions of people to the website, every private mission that we've done has reached a billion media impressions. And so there's no better way for a company that's looking to get there name out than to be associated with this really cool space mission that we know is happening, and that is interesting to people, fundamentally interesting to people because both of what the technology is and what the technology is being used for. I can't think of a better way to engage people all over the planet than to move them from the passive observing of something going on to the active participation of being involved in that mission.'
Participation here seems to come down to looking at a fake spacecraft on a website and identifying with a brand, as opposed to the old way - looking at a fake spacecraft on a television and identifying with a brand in the commercial break. The revolutionary difference? Now you do both these things AT THE SAME TIME.

I don't know what to say. This has to be one of the saddest and most cynical fake space mission of all time. Faking space craft to captures peoples attention in the form of 'media impressions.'

The Sunjammer project's slogan? 'A mission of purpose' :puke:

--- --- ---

Lastly, I wanted to share this comment someone made on Jon Rappaport's blog yesterday:
A horrific vision, but seems to be what is actually happening. It’s like a Philip K. Dick dystopia, but just like in those books, the protagonists are people just like ourselves; imperfect and disempowered but moral and determined.
dblitz
Member
Posts: 248
Joined: Sat Apr 27, 2013 2:32 am

Re: Sunjammer - dystopian dream machine

Unread post by dblitz »

The Sunjammer has no engines, it is only propelled by sunlight, and yet after being launched into Earth orbit aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, it is somehow going to travel to the Earth-Sun Lagrange Point 1, a gravitationally stable spot located between the Earth and the Sun.

This point is 1.5 million Km from Earth, but without engines, how is this craft supposed to travel closer to that point, and further from Earth, when it's propulsion system is based on using the pressure of sunlight?

Surely it can only move away from the Sun and towards the Earth as long as it is still bound by gravity to Earth orbit :unsure:

And anyway, even if they get it to travel 1.5 million Km towards the thing that is pushing against it, how do they keep this craft from continually moving away from that point, due to the constant pressure of sunlight, without some kind of engine to act as a brake and counter that pressure? To maintain it's position that engine would have to operate constantly. It would end up using more fuel than a craft propelled by the standard rocket technology, even though they are selling it as an eco-friendly craft.
dblitz
Member
Posts: 248
Joined: Sat Apr 27, 2013 2:32 am

Re: Sunjammer - dystopian dream machine

Unread post by dblitz »

The Sunjammer might be the world's first self-debunking spacecraft, it's sole propulsion system based on the principle that it will be repelled by it's destination.

But maybe I'm missing something. So just in case it's me who is dumb, and not the super genius spacecraft designers that are foisting this seeming absurdity on the world, I sent the following email message:
Can you please tell me how the Sunjammer is going to fly closer to the Sun after being put in orbit, when it's propulsion system works by pressure that only moves away from the Sun?
To the following recipients:

The Ask NASA contact email form.

The L'Garde, Inc. Sunjammer mission contact email form.

The sunjammermission.com contact email form.

And Dhiren Kataria, SWAN instrument lead scientist at UCL Mullard Space Science Laboratory.


I don't expect to receive any replies, but at least I tried, and no one can say I didn't ask.

--- --- ---

I also made sure that the Sunjammer has no engine or propellant other than the pressure of sunlight, by checking the NASA Sunjammer Mission page found here:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/tdm/s ... rview.html

Where I am assured under the heading, Solar Sail Demonstration: Key Mission Facts, that:
The L'Garde solar sail will produce a maximum thrust of approximately 0.01 newton, which is roughly equivalent to the weight of a "pink packet" of artificial sweetener.

This solar sail demonstrator is truly propellantless -- it will use control vanes for attitude control.
Post Reply