Dooku's Solar Sailer circa 1978

[darthskellington]

As most of you probably know, the concept behind Dooku's solar sailer is based on modern scientific theory, and not a galaxy far, far away.

I was thumbing through my old Star Wars Question and Answer Book About Space (1978), and came across this image of a solar sail. I thought it might be of interest to everyone.

Other highlights of the book include discussion of the planned "Space Telescope" that will be launched in 1983 (which we all know and love as Hubble). (aka as the "We had the stupid thing out of focus for 15 years, don't we feel like @$$es" telescope).

The author (a professor) also predicts that the first astronauts to explore Mars will actually be robots, which has come to pass, albeit none too successfully.

 

[darthskellington]

Another sci-fi Solar Sailer that I'm aware of appeared in an episode of Star Trek: DS9.

Sisko was given a yaght powered by a solar sail by the Bajorans. I missed that episode myself, but I know they made a Micro Machine version of it.

 

[Buzz Bumble]

Oh, goody! We're playing the "prototype" game.

I think you'll find the "Solar Sailer" is much older than either of those images, but I couldn't find any pictures in my two good sci-fi history books ... unless you count this magnificent Space "Sailer".

I'm not sure of the date, probably late 1960's or early 1970's. It's a cover illustration drawn by Darrel K. Sweet for a novel called "Glory" by Alfred Coppel.

 

[Buzz Bumble]

But, I did find a few other interesting images.

I'm not sure when this image drawn, but well before Star Wars - probably the early 1960s. It comes from a German sci-fi magazine called Utopia (issue #2). It could be a possible source for the idea of the Neimoidian Core Ships.

 

[Buzz Bumble]

This one was painted by Syd Mead for the 1961 Steel publication "Concepts" (along with a couple of others that later turned up in Blade Runner). according to the picture's caption:

This was among the first serious attempts at depicting a quadrupedal vehicle to be seen by the American public. It was almost certainly the source of the AT-ATs for George Lucas's 1980 Star Wars follow-up, The Empire Strikes Back.

 

[Buzz Bumble]

I've also found a couple of "prototype" Wookiees, complete with crossbow weapons. I'll scan the pictures and post them tomorrow.

 

[Nightwing]

I did a thread on this a year ago- the similarities between two solar sailers- the one in AOTC and Tron

 

[Zepp]

I think that the vehicle in tron would be classified as laser propulsion rather than as a solar sail... also it is not an intersteller vehicle...

news on solar sails...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1984793.stm

there are also some interesting reads out there on other forms of interstellar propulsion...

 

[darthskellington]

Hey everyone, neat stuff everyone's posting.

After a day of no posts, I figured no one cared about my post beyond a passing glance. It turns out everyone was just thinking about what they had seen too.

Thanks for contributing. Interesting stuff all around.

 

[Buzz Bumble]

Okely dokely, here's the promised "proto"-Wookiees.

Both images were drawn by John Schoenherr in the mid-1970's to illustrate an ANALOG magazine story called "And Seven Times Never Kill Man" by George R. R. Martin. The picture captions say:

Left Image: "... These creatures were almost certainly used in establishing the appearance of the character Chewbacca in George Lucas's 1977 SF film Star Wars, right down to the crossbow weapons."

Right Image: "... Painted in the mid-1970's, this was likely the inspiration for characters that later appeared in Star Wars movies."

 

[darthskellington]

Is that a six-pack or is it just cold in proto-wookiee land?

 

[Borsk]

[benkenobi]

I feel a great disturbance in CC's avatar. It's as though it changed and is about to change again. I feel something terrible has happened.

[/benkenobi]