14 DAY TRIAL // Sci-Fi fans everywhere, this is our dream come true. Something that might have seemed just a dream a few years ago has now turned into scientific reality, because the Cosmos 1 space craft has just been launched from a Russian submarine, floating in a specially designated position from the Barents Sea.
As we told you in one of our previous articles, the Planetary Society, a public space advocacy group headquartered in Pasadena, California has developed a spacecraft fitted with a solar sail. This technology is considered a means for achieving interstellar flight by using the push provided by a continuous stream of photons. Though in a gradual manner, the constant light pressure should allow a spacecraft to reach great speeds over time, and cover great distances, without the use of any fuel.
The $4 million project was sponsored by Cosmos Studios, a science-based entertainment company from New York, and the Lavochkin Association and the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Russia were in charge of actually building what might be our first step towards the stars.
The next step is for the spacecraft to unfurl its eight triangular sails, each having a length of about 50 feet and just a quarter the thickness of a trash bag. The most important part of the mission, controlled flight, planned to be achieved by rotating each blade to change its pitch, would be attempted early next week.
UPDATE
Unfortunately, for now, the fate of Cosmos 1 is yet unknown, because there's no information to confirm or deny that the space craft has reached the orbit, reports Associated Press, citing a spokeswoman for the Lavochkin institute.