solar sail
NASA’s Putting its Solar Sail Through its Paces
Those of you following the Advanced Composite Solar Sail System may have heard that its booms and sail are now…
Project Helianthus – a Solar Sail Driven Geomagnetic Storm Tracker
Solar storms captured the imagination of much of the American public earlier this year when auroras were visible well south…
NASA’s New Solar Sail Has Launched and Will Soon Deploy
Solar Sails are an enigmatic and majestic way to travel across the gulf of space. Drawing an analogy to the…
Mercury is the Perfect Destination for a Solar Sail
Solar sails rely upon pressure exerted by sunlight on large surfaces. Get the sail closer to the Sun and not…
Solar Sails Could Reach Mars in Just 26 Days
A recent study submitted to Acta Astronautica explores the potential for using aerographite solar sails for traveling to Mars and…
Are Chemical Rockets or Solar Sails Better to Return Resources from Asteroids?
If and when we ever get an asteroid mining industry off the ground, one of the most important decisions to…
A new Kind of Solar Sail Could let us Explore Difficult Places to Reach in the Solar System
Solar sailing technology has been a dream of many for decades. The simple elegance of sailing on the light waves…
Tiny NEA Scout Solar Sail Mission to Chase Asteroid
NEA Scout will hitch a ride to an asteroid on the Artemis 1 Moon mission.
LightSail 2 has Been Flying for 30 Months now, Paving the way for Future Solar Sail Missions
Even after 30 months in space, The Planetary Society’s LightSail 2 mission continues to successfully “sail on sunbeams” demonstrating solar…
NASA is Testing out new Composite Materials for Building Lightweight Solar Sail Supports
Space exploration is driven by technology - sometimes literally in the case of propulsion technologies. Solar sails are one of…