January 2017
New oceans beckon for solar sail technology
...to it, to higher and higher speeds. And it can do so without the use of any fuel. It is a common misperception that solar sails use the solar wind for propulsion - this is incorrect This last point is hugely significant. Given that launching anything...
03 January 2020
China tests mini solar sail in space
...2011. Like its other LightSail companion in space, the solar sail is powered by the reflected light pressure of the sun... verification and environmental tests of the solar sail. For the first stage, the solar sail body is pushed out of the satellite...
29 April 2020
NASA's new solar sail system to be tested on-board NanoAvionics' satellite
... to provide enough room for the 4.6 kg payload that includes the composite boom and solar sail system as well as cameras to monitor the solar sail during and after deployment. "I'm tremendously proud and excited that NanoAvionics will be part...
April 2020
Plasma Clipper - opening the age of sail, in space travel
... With the combination of these concepts, you can sail around the solar system using much less reaction mass than it would.... With the combination of these concepts, you can sail around the solar system using much less reaction mass than it would take...
24 July 2019
LightSail 2 unfurls its sails and soars through space
... 2 ground station pass of the day, completed around 3.30 p.m PDT (22.30 GMT) the spacecraft had finished one orbit in solar sailing mode, and all of its major systems were reporting nominally. “A preliminary look at attitude control system data...
26 June 2019
LightSail 2 gets ready to make its debut in space
... to a week's long system testing by the project’s team members, in preparation for the unfurling of the dual-sided solar sails, approximately 2 weeks after launch day commenced. Both LightSails (1 and 2) have been designed and constructed by Stellar...
