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Re: starship-design: Solar sails/Laser sails



Lee,

You wrote:
>It is typically absorbed. We haven't really paid much attention to 
>emissivity yet, but you are right, emissivity becomes important at high 
>power levels.

We have been paying attention to it.
Even last month (Sun, 27 Jul 1997 00:34:12 +0100) I answered your question
"Forget terminal velocity, at what speed does the sail melt?"

Furthermore that Landis paper does a good job about comparing different
materials. He cogently points out that a high melting temperature is NOT the
property that is most important when looking for a sail material.

Timothy