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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