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RE: starship-design: Tugs
Isaac,
> ..think large laser sails are more trouble than they're worth, but
> the most efficient way to stabilize its structure would have to
> be an active mechanism. Something like many patches which can be
> rotated up to 90 degrees with microactuators. They'd be able to
> effectively adjust the transparency of the sail on a local basis.
That is one of the reasons that I found the mention of dielectric materials
so interesting. You could "steer" without any moving parts by simply varying
the current supplied to a particular area of the sail to make it more or
less transparent.
Lee
(o o)
------------------------------------------------------oOO--(_)--OOo---------
Let us create vessels and sails adjusted to the heavenly ether, and there
will be plenty of people unafraid of the empty wastes.
Johannes Kepler, in a letter to Galileo, 1610