Just as sailboats use wind pressure to propel through water, solar sails use the pressure from light radiated by the sun to move through space. Once the province of science fiction authors such as Arthur C. Clarke, solar sailing is gradually moving into the realm of reality. A privately funded $4.5-million mission to test solar sailing technology called LightSail now has a launch date in April 2016 and a ride to space onboard SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket. Once in orbit, LightSail 1 will make maneuvers using sunlight, rather than rocket fuel. “Solar sailing has been under development at a slow pace for a lot of years,” says LightSail Project Manager Doug Stetson of the nonprofit Planetary Society, which is organizing and funding the mission. “The reason it’s hung on all these years is because of the potential for basically free propulsion throughout the solar system.”
Posted on: Wed, 16 Jul 2014 13:40:24 +0000
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