• Thumbnail for Solar sail
    Solar sails (also known as lightsails, light sails, and photon sails) are a method of spacecraft propulsion using radiation pressure exerted by sunlight...
    98 KB (11,565 words) - 11:49, 2 November 2024
  • Thumbnail for Diffractive solar sail
    A diffractive solar sail, or diffractive lightsail, is a type of solar sail which relies on diffraction instead of reflection for its propulsion. Current...
    6 KB (570 words) - 18:59, 21 April 2024
  • Thumbnail for LightSail
    LightSail is a project to demonstrate controlled solar sailing within low Earth orbit using a CubeSat. The project was developed by The Planetary Society...
    19 KB (1,840 words) - 18:59, 3 August 2024
  • Thumbnail for Radiation pressure
    materials for optimizing a solar sail, for instance. Momentary or hours long solar pressures can indeed escalate due to release of solar flares and coronal mass...
    40 KB (5,289 words) - 15:21, 14 July 2024
  • The fission sail is a type of spacecraft propulsion proposed by Robert Forward that uses fission fragments to propel a large solar sail-like craft. It...
    2 KB (320 words) - 14:41, 1 October 2023
  • Thumbnail for Solar constant
    radiation pressure, which aids in the calculation of a force on a solar sail. Solar irradiance is measured by satellites above Earth's atmosphere, and...
    13 KB (1,763 words) - 18:51, 30 April 2024
  • Thumbnail for Electric sail
    electric sail (also known as an electric solar wind sail or an E-sail) is a proposed form of spacecraft propulsion using the dynamic pressure of the solar wind...
    17 KB (1,887 words) - 20:17, 11 September 2024
  • Thumbnail for 2069 Alpha Centauri mission
    allocated funding. A preliminary mission outline suggests the use of solar sails propelled by high energy lasers to increase propulsion. The proposed...
    3 KB (294 words) - 12:27, 25 January 2024
  • employs a solar sail to continuously modify its orbit in ways that gravity alone would not allow. Typically, a statite would use the solar sail to "hover"...
    3 KB (302 words) - 12:24, 7 June 2024
  • Thumbnail for Spacecraft propulsion
    Spacecraft propulsion (category Discovery and exploration of the Solar System)
    the solar sail concept, NanoSail-D became the first such powered satellite to orbit Earth. As of August 2017, NASA confirmed the Sunjammer solar sail project...
    91 KB (8,213 words) - 01:55, 28 September 2024