In the realm of imagination, the same concept applies in real life as well. However, unlike in the realm of imagination, we currently lack operational solar sail spacecraft to experiment with. Nonetheless, this may change in the near future, as various companies, individuals, and even the American space agency have plans to rectify this situation.
Today, we are particularly interested in one of NASA’s initiatives, as the agency recently announced the successful completion of a significant test on a solar sail technology that will soon be utilized in actual space missions.
At present, this technology does not have an official name, and it is being developed by the Marshall Space Flight Center. This center oversees the project and is responsible for creating the necessary algorithms to control and navigate the sail during its spaceflight.
NASA is not working alone on this endeavor, as it has enlisted the assistance of private companies Redwire and NeXolve. Redwire supplies the deployment mechanism for the solar sail, while NeXolve is responsible for creating the sunlight-capturing membrane, which essentially acts as the spacecraft’s engines.
Most people are familiar with, or can easily imagine, how a solar sail spacecraft operates. Once in space, the sail is unfurled, allowing it to capture light and propel the ship forward. This principle is similar to how sailboats utilize wind power to navigate the Earth’s oceans.
The NASA project involves attaching four identical solar sail quadrants to a spacecraft, which will then be launched into space. The booms that support the sails are 100 feet long, and each reflective surface measures 17,780 square feet (1,652 square meters).
The sail itself is constructed from a polymer material coated with aluminum, giving it the appearance of aluminum foil. Despite its thinness of just two and a half microns (which is less than the thickness of a human hair), it is expected to effectively capture sunlight and propel the spacecraft forward.
Due to its large surface area, the spacecraft attached to these sails will need to be compactly packed for launch. Consequently, the sail will need to be unfurled once it reaches orbit. Recently, NASA successfully tested this unfurling capability at the Redwire facility in Longmont, Colorado.
The test took place in late January and marked a significant milestone in the spacecraft’s development. Although only one of the four quadrants was deployed, covering a total area of 4,445 square feet (400 square meters), it proved the effectiveness of the deployment technology and method.
The space agency believes that the solar sail it is currently developing is now “ready for proposals to be flown on science missions.” However, it remains unclear which spacecraft will be utilized for the space test and when it will be launched.
If successful, this technology and similar ones have the potential to revolutionize the way we achieve our objectives in space. NASA is already considering solar sails as game-changing tools for missions focused on space weather, as well as exploratory missions to new orbits around our planet and the Sun itself.
Due to their proximity to the Sun, Venus and Mercury could become ideal targets for missions powered by solar sails.
Despite the numerous advantages over traditional propulsion methods in space, solar sails are not the most suitable choice for sending spacecraft deeper into the solar system and beyond. This is because the power of light as a propulsion force diminishes the further one travels from the Sun.
However, NASA, being the forward-thinking organization it is, envisions a future where light could even propel interstellar spacecraft. This is because solar sails only require light to function, regardless of its source.
According to the space agency, there may come a time when lasers could be utilized to accelerate spacecraft to the speeds necessary to escape the confines of the solar system.
These lasers could be positioned on celestial bodies like Earth or deployed in space to provide an additional boost to solar sails when required. NASA technologist Les Johnson suggests that this approach could propel a spacecraft “sufficiently fast to reach another star within a reasonable timeframe.”
We will closely monitor the progress of this solar sail spacecraft project and provide updates as we gather more information about its development and future plans.
According to the Source autoevolution.com