Solar sails could guide interplanetary travel, says new study (Update)
Space travel has brought us to our next-door neighbor, the moon, and to the depths of our larger solar community inhabited by giants such as Saturn and Jupiter.
Page 2 - News tagged with sails
Sailing among the stars: how photons could revolutionize space flight
A few days from now, a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket will lift off from Florida, carrying a satellite the size of a loaf of bread with nothing to power it but a huge polyester "solar sail."
Space Exploration
Jun 20, 2019
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Team uses fractal geometry to build lighter structures
(Phys.org)—A team made up of members from several European countries has published a paper in Physical Review Letters describing a technique they've developed for using fractal geometry to build structures that maintain ...
Optical lifting demonstrated for the first time (w/ Video)
(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists in New York have predicted, observed and experimentally verified a micrometer-scale object being lifted only by a beam of laser light. Optical lifting may be useful for powering micromachines or ...
Ancient Flying Pterosaur Also Sailed Seas (w/ Video)
(PhysOrg.com) -- Tapejara was an excellent flyer that also had an innate nautical knowledge of sailing.
Archaeology
Oct 19, 2009
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NASA ejects nanosatellite from microsatellite in space
(PhysOrg.com) -- On Dec. 6 at 1:31 a.m. EST, NASA for the first time successfully ejected a nanosatellite from a free-flying microsatellite. NanoSail-D ejected from the Fast, Affordable, Science and Technology Satellite, ...
Space Exploration
Dec 7, 2010
2
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First-ever solar sail a 'momentous achievement'
In an unexpected reversal of fortune, NASA's NanoSail-D spacecraft has unfurled a gleaming sheet of space-age fabric 650 km above Earth, becoming the first-ever solar sail to circle our planet.
Space Exploration
Jan 26, 2011
13
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Space sailing soon: A one-kilometer-long electric sail tether produced
The electric sail (ESAIL), invented by Dr. Pekka Janhunen at the Finnish Kumpula Space Centre in 2006, produces propulsion power for a spacecraft by utilizing the solar wind. The sail features electrically charged long and ...
Space Exploration
Jan 8, 2013
66
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LightSail team prepares for tests of mylar space wonder
The concept of LightSail—spacecraft designed to propel through space on beams of sunlight— pushed through by nothing but the pressure of sunlight—has been around for years but this month made special news because the ...
Upcoming space mission to test drag sail pulling rocket back to Earth
A rocket is going up into space with a drag sail. The goal? For the drag sail to bring the rocket back to Earth, preventing it from becoming like the thousands of pieces of space junk in Earth's lower orbit.
Space Exploration
Aug 20, 2020
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