solar sail

[′sō·lər ′sāl]

(aerospace engineering)

A surface of a highly polished material upon which solar light radiation exerts a pressure. Also known as photon sail.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Solar Sail

(or photon sail), a proposed means of spacecraft propulsion. It consists of very thin opaque sheeting—for example, a metallized polymeric film—that is set up on the vehicle in space and is capable, over a rather long period of time, of imparting a substantial speed to the vehicle owing to the action of solar radiation on the sail (seeLIGHT PRESSURE). A limitation on the use of a solar sail is that it can move the spacecraft in only one direc tion: away from the sun. Moreover, the force exerted by the solar radiation on the sail is small and decreases in inverse proportion to the square of the distance from the sun. The solar sail may find application in interplanetary flights.

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References in periodicals archive

The nudge delivered by a single photon is minuscule, so a solar sail must be large in order to intercept as much light as possible.

Travelin' Light

Lasers would help propel solar sails, says Joan Johnson-Freese, a professor of national security affairs at the US Naval War College who also sits on the Breakthrough board.

Next stop: Alpha Centauri: Shooting tiny spacecraft to other stars requires audacious thinking and technological progress--but Breakthrough Starshot's backers say it is just a matter of time

The payloads on the satellites Falcon Heavy is putting into orbit include an atomic clock NASA is testing for space navigation, another testing new telescope technologies, and a solar sail project part-funded by the Planetary Society, a non-profit organisation headed by Bill Nye, "The Science Guy" on television presentations.

SpaceX launches Falcon Heavy rocket with 24 satellites

As well as the satellites, the rocket is also carrying a deep space atomic clock, a solar sail, clean and green fuel, and even human ashes.

Elon Musk's SpaceX completes 'most difficult launch ever' of rocket carrying 24 satellites; The mission is one of the most challenging in SpaceX history, with four separate upper-stage engine burns and three separate orbits to deploy satellites

For GOES I-M, a rotating solar array supplied power and a long solar sail boom balanced the craft.