Solar Cruiser: A Giant Sail Prepares for Space
Planetary Radio: Space Exploration, Astronomy and Science
The Planetary Society
4.8 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 6 January 2021
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It is many times larger than any previous solar sail, and it will pave the way for even bigger spacecraft propelled by light. Solar Cruiser principal investigator Les Johnson tells us about his latest project and looks to humanity crossing the gulfs of interstellar space. Stellaris: People of the Stars is a collection of science fact and fiction co-edited by Les. Mat and Bruce offer a copy in the new What’s Up space trivia contest. There’s more to discover at https://www.planetary.org/planetary-radio/0106-2021-les-johnson-solar-cruiser
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | NASA Green Lights a gigantic solar sail this week on planetary radio. |
| 0:07.0 | Welcome and Happy New Year again all. |
| 0:12.0 | I'm Matt Kaplan of the Planetary Society |
| 0:15.1 | with more of the human adventure across our solar system and beyond. I wish I could |
| 0:20.6 | say it's as big as an American football field, but at nearly 1,700 square meters, |
| 0:26.2 | Solar Cruiser would cover a third of that field, and it will fly before the middle of this decade, according to Principal investigator |
| 0:35.1 | Les Johnson. Les has returned for a wonderful conversation about this sale |
| 0:39.9 | and even bigger ones in our future, along with much more. |
| 0:44.0 | We'll give away Less's book Stilleris in this week's What's Up segment with Bruce. |
| 0:49.0 | It's a terrific collection of science, fact, and fiction about what it will mean to be human when we become an |
| 0:55.2 | interstellar species. |
| 0:58.0 | There are a couple of space headlines worth mentioning that didn't quite make it into the |
| 1:01.8 | New Year's Day edition of the Downlink, our free weekly |
| 1:05.0 | newsletter. |
| 1:06.7 | Recent planetary radio space policy edition guest Scott Pace has returned to academia |
| 1:12.1 | from his service as Executive Secretary of the U.S. National |
| 1:16.2 | Space Council. It's still not known if the incoming Biden administration will retain the |
| 1:21.9 | Council. I suspect we'll talk about this in the January |
| 1:25.1 | Space Policy Edition, premiering on Friday January 8th. The Puerto Rican |
| 1:30.4 | government is not giving up on the Arasebo Observatory. |
| 1:34.0 | Outgoing Governor Wanda Vasquez-Garsed has set aside $8 million for repair or replacement of the big |
| 1:41.0 | radio telescope. Of course, much more than that amount will be needed |
... |
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