As for the construction of the model, I wanted a model that could conceivably be launched sometime in the near future. Since form follows function, I figured I wanted something that would look like it could be launched on the top of a Saturn V type rocket. This dictated a shape that was basically cylindrical, which played quite nicely into my "ease of construction" category. The body of the model was turned on a lathe, forming the cylindrical body, the heat sinks near the rear, and the front heat shield. The heat sinks and heat shield were added as part of my quest to make this model believable. Heat sinks are needed to get rid of waste heat, and this thing would have to have some sort of generator on board, which would probably produce plenty of waste heat. I also wanted the front to look like a heat shield; because I imagined this thing jettisoning the sail after a race and then becoming it's own reentry vehicle. If you look closely at the front of the ship, you see can see three holes in the heat shield, which were supposed to be retro rockets. The hasty paint scheme makes them a bit hard to see, though.

The sail itself was originally supposed to be bigger, to show the telescoping support structure, but then I would have ended up with at least 16 square feet of model sitting on my work bench, which is itself only about eight square feet. So building the sail itself was deemed impossible. The sail, along with the telescoping support booms, would be folded up behind the ship at launch. Once in space, the hydraulics would deploy the sail, and would also steer the ship by warping the sail. Warping the sail causes differentials in pressure across the sail, which basically allows you to turn the ship. The Hydraulic cylinders were made from brass and aluminum tubing, with some thin solder serving as the actual hydraulic line. The hinges where the hydraulics meet the sail were commercially available R/C airplane push rods, inserted into the end of the aluminum tubes. If you look closely, you can see the company's name stamped on one of the hinges! The hatch was designed to add a sense of scale to the ship. Solar sail racers would have to be a precarious balance of size. You need a ship large enough to carry the supplies you would need for the length of the race, but less massive ships would be able to accelerate faster on a given area of sail.

The cockpit came from my spare parts box, and reminded me a bit of the cockpits on old world war two bombers, which is why I split the canopy in half. In retrospect, I'm not sure you want that much canopy on the unprotected front of a fast moving space ship. Oh well, damn the micrometeorites, full speed ahead!

Image: Top/front view

Image: Hydraulics

Image: Hatch