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IKAROS, the first space-probe with a solar sail in flight (artist's depiction), featuring a typical square sail configuration of almost 200 m 2. Solar sails (also known as lightsails, light sails, and photon sails) are a method of spacecraft propulsion using radiation pressure exerted by sunlight on large surfaces.
The spaceship will compensate for the low thrust by having a mass of only a few grams. The camera, computer, communications laser, a nuclear power source, and the solar sail must be miniaturized to fit within a mass limit. [25] [29] All components must be engineered to endure extreme acceleration, cold, vacuum, and protons. [26]
Solar Cruiser was a planned NASA spacecraft that would have studied the Sun while propelled by a solar sail. [2] [3] The mission would have supported NASA's Solar Terrestrial Probes program by studying how interplanetary space changes in response to the constant outpouring of energy and particles from the Sun and how it interacts with planetary atmospheres. [3]
IKAROS is the first spacecraft to successfully demonstrate solar sail technology in interplanetary space. [ 3 ] [ 8 ] The craft's name is an allusion to the legendary Icarus ( Ancient Greek : Ἴκαρος , Ikaros ), who flew close to the Sun on wings made of bird-feathers and wax.
A giant solar sail recently unfurled by Nasa has been spotted “tumbling” through space.. Astronomers captured the 80-square-metre object, which was unfurled last week, appearing to fluctuate ...
Cosmos 1 was a project by Cosmos Studios and The Planetary Society to test a solar sail in space. As part of the project, an uncrewed solar-sail spacecraft named Cosmos 1 was launched into space at 19:46:09 UTC (15:46:09 EDT) on 21 June 2005 from the submarine Borisoglebsk in the Barents Sea.
Originally devised as a solar sail, Syromyatnikov pivoted to using the proposed hardware as a space mirror. The project consisted of two experiments: the Znamya 2 experiment and the failed Znamya 2.5, plus the proposed Znamya 3. After the failed deployment of the Znamya 2.5 the project was abandoned by the Russian Federal Space Agency.
John Merton, a spaceship designer, develops and promotes a lightweight spacecraft with a large area of solar sail, to be powered entirely by radiation pressure, a pressure exerted on a surface illuminated by light-particles from the Sun — this is distinct from, and much greater than, pressure developed on the surface by the solar wind from the sun.