More to the point: Trillian seeking interstellar travelers from Earth (like Arthur Dent)BDanielMayfield wrote:
So, according to your calculations Art, trill seeking interstellar travelers could windsurf such jets? Gnarly, dude!
would find it safe to drogue chute down such jets in order to approach & then orbit HH 24.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunjammer_%28spacecraft%29 wrote: <<Sunjammer is a solar sail constructed by LGarde for NASA. The largest solar sail to be constructed as of 2013, Sunjammer was named after a 1964 Arthur C. Clarke story of the same name, in which several solar sails compete in a race across the Solar System. Sunjammer is slated to launch in January 2015 as the secondary payload of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, along with the Earth observation satellite DSCOVR.
Constructed of Kapton in order to withstand the extreme temperatures of space, Sunjammer has a width and height of 38 metres, giving it a total surface area of over 1,200 square metres and making it the largest solar sail as of 2013. Despite its huge surface area, Sunjammer has a thickness of only 5 μm, giving it an extremely low weight of about 32 kilograms and allowing it to be stored in a space the size of a dishwasher. Once in space, the large surface area of the solar sail will allow it to achieve a thrust of about 0.01 N—roughly the weight of a sugar packet. To control its orientation, via this its speed and direction, Sunjammer will use gimballed vanes (each of which is itself a small solar sail) located at the tips of each of its 4 booms, instead of thrusters, completely eliminating the need for any propellant other than the rays of the Sun.
In addition to being a demonstration craft, Sunjammer will collect scientific data in its own right. With several instruments to detect various aspects of space weather, Sunjammer may eventually become part of a larger network of solar sails studying the Sun, allowing for the creation of a more robust early-warning system for space weather.
Slated for launch in January 2015, a slight delay from an earlier projection of November 2014, aboard a Falcon 9 rocket, Sunjammer will launch along with the primary DSCOVR Earth observation and space weather satellite. Within two months of launch test various technologies, such as deployment, vector control via altitude vanes, and eventually reaching a location near the Earth-Sun L1 Lagrangian point. Sunjammer will carry two British space science payloads: the Solar Wind Analyser (SWAN) developed by the Mullard Space Science Laboratory of University College London, and the MAGIC magnetometer developed by the Blackett Laboratory of Imperial College London.>>