Dr Thomas Waters - Solar sails: an exciting glimpse of the future?

Solar sails are a novel type of spacecraft which are attracting more and more attention both from the big space agencies and smaller private commercial firms. They are essentially large light-weight mirrors, and as sunlight reflects off the mirror it imparts a tiny force. This provides the solar sail with an essentially free supply of fuel, but also solar sails are capable of a whole new class of orbits which conventional spacecraft cannot access. This talk hopes to introduce the solar sail concept, discuss some of the current and proposed solar sail missions, and sketch some of the complex dynamics in an accessible (and equation free) way.

Thomas Waters completed his degree and PhD at Dublin City University (his PhD thesis was in the area of General Relativity). Following this Thomas was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Strathclyde (Glasgow) where he worked with Colin McInnes on solar sails in the Earth-Sun system. After three years as a lecturer at the National University of Ireland (Galway), Thomas came to the Department of Mathematics at the University of Portsmouth and has been a lecturer there since 2010.

The Vectis Astronomical Society meets on the 4th Friday of every month, except for December. This event is open for non-members to attend. The speakers come from all over the country and give a presentation for around 45 mins. We then stop for a break with tea and biscuits, which gives an opportunity to mingle and chat.

The second half of the evening sees a presentation by one of our regular members showing us what to we could see in the sky over the coming month. This always involves some great pictures projected onto the large screen.

Entry to the event is free of charge, although as we run as a charity, donations are always welcome.

Newsletters are available at the entrance for a suggested donation of £2.50

Please see our website for contact and membership details.