Aggieland2015
It’s not too late
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2015 Aggieland yearbook.
The 113th edition of Texas
A&M's official yearbook will
chronicle the 2014-2015
school year - traditions,
academics, athletics, the
other education, the Corps,
Greeks, residence halls,
campus organizations, and
student portraits. Distribution
will be in Fall 2015.
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drop by the Student Media
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The Planetary Society will launch its LightSail spacecraft in May to test whether light is a feasible propulsion system.
Pushed by starlight
2015 kicks off with innovative space exploration test
John Rangel
(S)JohnRangel2016
azing at the stars nearly 400
I Vj years ago, Johannes Kepler no-
ticed something out of place —
comet tails seemed to be blown about
by a “solar wind,” a phenomenon he
described as a possible way to propel
space ships throughout the heavens.
Europeans at the time were eagerly
sailing to the New World on wind-
driven ships; why not do the same in
space?
Kepler’s “solar wind” never gained
traction with 17th century explor
ers and was eventually disproved, but
the idea to harness the sun as propul
sion has fascinated science fiction fans
and scientists ever since. For much
of written history, people have seen
something fascinating from afar, raised
a sail and explored it. The idea that
outer space might be so easily traveled
is a dream for space enthusiasts every
where and it took a small step closer
to reality this week.
The Planetary Society, a private
non-profit space advocacy group,
announced Monday that its LightSail
spacecraft would launch in May. The
launch is just a test — the satellite
will only have enough time to test its
systems upon deployment before it
burns up in re-entry — but LightSail’s
emergence is a milestone for two
reasons. It will give engineers valuable
data about how to successfully launch
a second LightSail in 2016, which is
expected to fully deploy and use the
sun’s light to navigate. And the entire
project was developed and funded by
private citizens, not governments.
The science behind LightSail is an
exploration into the quirky contradic
tions beyond classical physics. People
walk through sunlight every day of
their lives, but no one I know of has
ever been knocked over by a strong
gust of solar wind. Light feels warm,
looks beautiful and for everyday rea
soning has no mass — unless you’re a
rocket scientist.
Light is made up of particles called
photons. The massive forces that
keep the sun burning emit streams of"
photons, among other things. While
photons don’t have mass in the clas
sical sense, they do have momentum
and thus can be modeled as tiny
tennis balls. If you throw a tennis ball
at a toy boat’s sail, the impact will
force the boat forward by a transfer
of momentum. LightSail will do the
same, but on a larger scale. It will
deploy a reflective sheet just 1/4 the
thickness of a trash bag over an area of
344 square feet. Millions of photons
will strike this surface every second,
each imparting a tiny amount of mo
mentum. It is a slow but continuous
process that may one day accelerate
spacecraft to speeds faster than con
ventional rockets.
If such technology can be proven,
it would open up untold opportu
nity for space exploration. Spacecraft
would no longer need heavy rockets
or complicated thrusters. Future men
and women may one day see a star
that fascinates them, point a spacecraft
in the general direction, raise a sail and
explore it. And if you venture too
far from a star, no worries — future
ground-based lasers could one day
accelerate lightsail ships far into deep
space and beyond. Who knew space
travel could be so easy?
John Rangel is an aerospace
engineering junior and science and
technology editor for The Battalion.
FOUCAULT
CONTINUED
in hard political times ...
and socio-economic hard
times.”
Guy Whitten, political
science professor and di
rector of the Program in
Scientific Political Meth
odology, said he found
Foucault’s presentation
insightful and thought the
data on public opinion
in the French democracy
reflected events in Ameri
ca’s recent past, namely in
the aftermath of 9/11.
“What he was show
ing and what he is starting
to see in some of the data
they’ve taken since the
Charlie Hebdo events is
that things have temporar
ily gotten better, but this
is what always happens,”
Whitten said. “I mean this
is what always happens,
we saw this after 9/11,
Bush’s popularity soared
to a sort of all-time record
and then sort of steadily
went down.”
Whitten said although
this spike in unified pub
lic sentiment is a common
short-term trend, it is
not something that tends
to last. Whitten said the
long-term data typically
shows public opinion turn
fairly pessimistic.
Whitten said these
trends happen across the
histories of all longer-
standing Western democ
racies.
“I think we see this
across a lot of major de
mocracies — the older,
more mature democracies
— people don’t like the
national politicians, they
don’t like the national po
litical parties, but they still
think with all its flaws that
democracy is the way to
go,” Whitten said.
Claire Stieg, political
science graduate student,
said she found the lecture
very timely and applicable
with current events.
“I think in light of the
recent events and what’s
happening in France it’s
very relevant, and he
broke it down so it was
easy for someone who’s
not necessarily an aca
demic to see what’s going
on in France right now
and see how the popula
tion is reacting to current
events,” Stieg said.
MACBETH CONTINUED
Dan Martinez, leadership
senior and acting chair of the
Aggie Screenwriting Acting
and Production Club, said
Macbeth would be an inter
esting role to play because
the character kills his king for
power, then kills his friend
out of fear of losing that
power and deals with guilt
throughout most of the play.
“I actually got to see the
London actors last year,”
Martinez said. “They did
a spectacular job and they
only had five actors there as
well. I don’t think that just
five people are going to limit
the performance of it, because
there’s so much liberties you
can take.”
Greenwald said the com
plexity of Macbeth adds to
the play.
“Fie knows what he’s do
ing, he knows he’s literally
playing with fire and by fire
I mean Fiell,” Greenwald
said. “To kill anybody is bad,
but to kill a king — they
said a king was the ultimate
act of sacrilege, because who
puts the king on the throne?
God. So to kill a king was, in
a sense, to lash out on God
"'Macbeth'
is a taie of
revenge and
greed and fust
for power."
Laura Estiil, assistant
professor in the
Department of English
himself. ”
Estiil says the campus is
fortunate to have the Actors
from the London Stage come
to College Station to portray
Macbeth and other charac
ters.
“I’m really looking for
ward to this production,” Es-
till said. “Despite the fact that
the play is cursed, it’s actually
a blessing for us to have the
actors coming.”
The performance is at 7
p.m. Thursday in Rudder
Theatre. Tickets are $5 per
student and $10 general ad
mission.
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