At 100 seconds after lift-off and at an altitude of 122km, the rocket deployed its first sail, known as a clover type, which consists of four segments. At 230 seconds after lift-off and at an altitude of 169km, it deployed the second sail, known as a fan type, consisting of six segments. Both deployments were successful and the rocket splashed into the sea at about six minutes 40 seconds after lift-off.

What!? This thing climed 122km in 100 seconds? That's 75.8 miles in 1 minute and 40 seconds but not only that it fell atleast 105 miles in 2 minutes and 50 seconds and the camera survived? Did this thing not have a parachute?

These times just seem VERY short to me.

Just a quick check to see if its even possible. Acceleration due to gravity, g ~ 9.8 m/s^2.

h = g*t^2

so:

[169000/9.8]^1/2=17245^1/2=131 seconds

So I guess without a parachute and if the earth had no atmosphere it could have made that fall in 2 minutes 11 seconds. But this ignores the fall off in g with altitude and drag due to the atmosphere.

Also it would have hit the water with a speed of:

131*9.8 = 1284 m/s

That's approaching mach 4.

Am I missing something?

Carl

Traahn Wrote:Ahh, I wish I had the time and energy to verify your calculations right now. I miss Physics class. I'm not sure "wwwmwww" -- sorry! Were these "Solar Sailer" type things around before Tron? i only ask because I've since seen a similar spacecraft in Star Wars and now this?? Was Tron lightyears ahead of its time with respect to this, too? Or were Solar Sailers around in the 1950s or something?

The short and sweet of it is that the concept of a ship using "solar currents" as a propulsion device goes back to the 1920's, but was more a "romantic" type of science then a practical one. It wasn't until the 1970's when JPL started looking at the hard science of "Solar Sailing" that practical theories on how to do so were derived. Now we know that it is not solar currents per se that will drive the sails but actual pressure from the photons hitting the sail.

Traahn Wrote:Ahh, I see! And what about the visualization of it (how it looks)? Does its appearance in Tron resemble previous envisionments of it?

Somewhat. You have to take into account that the first theorists on this concept literally drew Galleon type ships and believed that they could one day traverse the stars. I personally don't know if that design would work but it shows the somewhat romantic nature of how space was percieved before the scientists made the reality all to mechanical and less glamorous. It had a "Verne" like quality to it. When JPL started devoting serious time to it the designs did get alot more closer to the Solar Sailer we all know from the movie, but I don't recall ever seeing any overwhelming similarities other than the position and maybe the size of the sail. THe forward rigged sail design with the crew vehicle and supporting structures tethered securely behind it is indeed a design constant. Most of the design drawings I have seen have used a circular sail instead of the "butterfly wing" or bowtie style sails. I wish Mr. Lisberger was here to tell us his inspirations for the solar sailer. I don't think I have ever heard him discuss the design process that went into the vehicle and the system of travel.where to buy abortion pill ordering abortion pills to be shipped to house buy abortion pill online

wwwmwww Wrote: IsoLine Wrote:I wish Mr. Lisberger was here to tell us his inspirations for the solar sailer. I don't think I have ever heard him discuss the design process that went into the vehicle and the system of travel. He is... well sort of. Take a look here: http://www.tron-sector.com/forums/default.aspx?do=top&id=271774 There you will see Mr. Lisberger stated the following via DaveTRON: --------------------------- To the best of my recollection -- Everyone expected Syd's Solar Sailer to be a big winner. It was the only thing he did that didn't ring the bell. There is some art of his on it somewhere, maybe in the Art of TRON book. It looks like a melting space ship-galleon. Since Moebius was storyboarding that seq. anyway we asked him to give it a shot and he did something based on some research I gave him that looked very tech and elegant. It's as if the Syd art was more like a weird Moebius design and the winning Moebius art was more like what we expected from Syd. Syd really had nothing to do with the final Solar Sailer -- it was cleaned up by Richard Taylor at III. John Norton did do the Recognizer and the hand animated grid bugs. Hope this helps. Steven -------------------------------

Well....There you go! I really must have been out of the loop when that discussion came up, I totally don't remember that discussion.
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