Please select your home edition
Edition
A+T Instruments BFD 2024 Leaderboard

Sailing to be our space future as NASA's solar sail prepares to fly

by Jason Dorrier,Singularity Hub/Sail-World on 27 Mar 2013
NASA sail - the biggest ever and progressing towards a launch SW
Navigating space isn’t as easy as crossing oceans. As Jason Dorrier comments in this article, there’s no air, water, or earth to push your spacecraft in another direction. As far as space travel is concerned rocket fuels and gravity-assist have been the best tools for over fifty years; but like rediscovering the past, the future will most likely be in sailing the heavens to other planets and galaxies.

In 2014, NASA hopes to launch a 13,000 square foot solar sail—the third to hit space and by far the biggest yet. It’s no warp drive, but solar sailing could send satellites into novel orbits or even to another star.

The sci-fi inspired mission, Sunjammer, is named after Arthur C. Clarke’s 1964 tale of sun-yacht races through the solar system and will carry the ashes of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and his wife Majel Barrett Roddenberry to the mission’s destination, a gravitationally balanced orbit between the Earth and Sun (L1). See here for a video on the mission from NASA’s private partner, L‘Garde:

Sunjammer’s sail is a third of an acre, about 124 feet to a side, and seven times the size of the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Planetary Society’s solar sail IKAROS, the biggest sail successfully launched to date.

After deployment, the solar sail’s reflective surface will harvest momentum from sunlight—not unlike an ocean-going ship, only using photons instead of air.

The sail’s pulling power is proportional to its collecting surface area and drops off by the inverse square of its distance from the sun. To maximize the thrust-to-weight ratio, NASA and L‘Garde fabricated a five micron thick (about the thickness of a red blood cell), 70 pound sail from DuPont’s thin film, Kapton. Stowed for launch, the sail fits in a space the size of a dishwasher.

However, even though the sail is ultra-thin and light, its pushing power won’t be much to sniff at. NASA expects Sunjammer to yield no more than 0.01 newtons of thrust—the equivalent of 'a ‘pink packet’ of artificial sweetener.'

Sunjammer solar sail under construction.

It’s not thrust over the short term that matters for solar sails; it’s the aggregate acceleration over time—long after conventional rockets run out of fuel. The power of sunlight is such that NASA engineers have to compensate for solar pressure when calculating trajectories.

And as an old NASA report on solar sails notes, a hypothetical solar sail launched near the sun in 2010 would gather enough speed to overtake Voyager by 2018, 'going as far in eight years as Voyager will have journeyed in 41 years.' Some theorists dream we could further accelerate such a craft with a powerful laser—perhaps achieving velocities 1/10 the speed of light.

But such technology is yet far in the future. In the near term, solar sails will be more useful closer to home.

'It will be us flying to a place that a customer actually wants to fly a solar sail to,' Nathan Barnes, Chief Operating Office at L‘Garde told Space.com. 'There are neat, clever, exotic orbits you can do with the solar sail that would permit viewing different portions of the sun that we can’t normally.'

Specifically, Barnes is referring to NOAA’s solar weather warning satellite (ACE) currently placed at L1 (where the Earth and Sun’s gravity cancels). ACE gives scientists about an hour advance warning of incoming solar weather. A warning system equipped with a solar sail could offset gravity with solar pressure and create a 'psuedo Lagrange point' closer to the sun than L1—thus improving on how quickly storms are detected.

Solar sails could also be used to clear defunct satellites from orbit by slowing them down to burn up in the atmosphere. Or they could propel missions to multiple near-Earth asteroids instead of just one.

First, Sunjammer needs to successfully prove the technology. A key moment will be when the spacecraft unfurls its sail. NASA’s previous solar sail demonstration, NanoSail-D, spent a 'month and a half stuck inside its mothership. Inexplicably, the glitch eventually solved itself and the sail sprang free. But the incident highlights how touchy the procedure can be. For the sake of future solar sail missions—and Star Trek fans everywhere—we hope Sunjammer opens without a hitch.

You'll find lots of other great science articles on www.http://singularityhub.com!SingularityHub. Image Credit: NASA, L’Garde

Rooster 2025Excess CatamaransBarton Marine Pipe Glands

Related Articles

Rolex Fastnet Race IRC Four preview
The pinnacle of grass roots sailing has 97 entries The very largest yachts, including the 100ft Ultim foiling trimarans and 60ft IMOCAs are an essential part of the spectacle of the Fastnet Race, however a critical element in the race's enduring appeal is that this is predominately a grass roots event.
Posted today at 7:36 pm
Long Beach Olympic Classes Regatta day 2
Classic Long Beach conditions return The weather conditions at the Long Beach Olympic Classes Regatta shifted noticeably today, delivering the classic Long Beach breeze that many expect from this world-class venue.
Posted today at 6:44 pm
NYYC International Women's Championship update
Third group of skippers includes Nicole Breault, Dominique Proyoveur, Laura van Veen While there is no nationality requirement for the crews that will compete in the 2026 New York Yacht Club International Women's Championship, a number of teams are embracing the opportunity to wave their respective national flags at the debut edition.
Posted today at 5:42 pm
The Sardinia Cup set to return in 2026
The competition will make its long-awaited return to the waters of the Costa Smeralda The Yacht Club Costa Smeralda (YCCS) is pleased to announce the return of the Sardinia Cup, one of the Club's most iconic regattas and a renowned international sailing event.
Posted today at 3:39 pm
How inclusive is sailing?
Largest global survey aims to find out The Magenta Project has today launched the 2x25 global survey, marking the start of the most ambitious equity and inclusion review ever undertaken in sailing and the wider marine industry.
Posted today at 1:18 pm
Aegean 600 - Snakes and ladders in extremis
Event was the sixth in the IMA's annual Mediterranean Maxi Offshore Challenge If the previous two Aegean 600s were among the most brutal offshore races on record with storm force winds and violent gusts, conversely this year's fifth edition of the anti-clockwise lap of the Aegean Sea was largely the lightest.
Posted today at 12:14 pm
2025 Long Beach Olympic Classes Regatta kicks off
The first week of the OCR includes five Olympic classes The highly anticipated 2025 Long Beach Olympic Classes Regatta officially commenced on Saturday, 12 July, marking the beginning of Olympic campaigns since the venues were announced.
Posted today at 8:14 am
Dufour 44 set to make waves at 40th HIRW
Hamilton Island Race Week offers the ultimate blend of competitive sailing and island festivities Dufour Yachts is proud to announce its official sponsorship of Hamilton Island Race Week 2025, Australia's premier offshore regatta.
Posted today at 5:28 am
How Transpac's first finishers earned the podium
The first teams to reach Diamond Head are as varied as they are inspiring From a maxi-sled to a doublehanded keelboat and a 68-foot catamaran, the first teams to reach Diamond Head are as varied as they are inspiring.
Posted today at 3:35 am
A challenging and memorable 5th edition AEGEAN 600
Bright lights and gleaming trophies were not the only indication of a successful edition At Saturday night's Awards Ceremony of the 2025 AEGEAN 600 the bright lights and gleaming trophies were not the only indication of a successful 5th edition of this challenging offshore race organized annually by the Hellenic Offshore Racing Club (HORC).
Posted on 13 Jul