SPACE TRAVEL
"We can build sails to catch the radiation blowing from the Sun," imagined Arthur C. Clarke in his short story "The Wind From the Sun." Almost four decades later, a piece of the writer's DNA and a message he penned from his home in Sri Lanka will hurl out of the solar system, propelled by a giant solar sail. The man behind this seemingly far-fetched effort is Charles Chafer, a 48-year-old Houston entrepreneur who in 1982 launched the first private rocket, the Conestoga I; in 1997, he blasted the cremated remains of Timothy Leary and Gene Roddenberry into space.
Chafer's latest scheme is to launch a football field-sized sail made of ultrathin solar material that captures light pressure from photons emitted by the sun. The sail will work as a perpetual motion machine and will carry a 3-kilogram payload of photos, drawings, written notes, and hair samples from millions of space enthusiasts.
NASA plans to hold its first test of the crucial sail components in November aboard the space shuttle Endeavour. If all goes well, the agency will test a prototype of the sail late next year. By late 2003, the Team Encounter sail should be launched from French Guiana via an Ariane-5 rocket.
For $5 million, Chafer will plaster a company's logo on the sail for all the world to see as the mission beams back video to the company's Web site (www.teamencounter.com). The project already has two sponsors, Paper Mate and Nescafé Tokyo. Families and individuals can pony up $25 to $100 for an Encounter Kit that lets them contribute their own messages. "You don't have to be Dennis Tito to have this experience," says Chafer.
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