Applications
Concept
: Physics
: Applications
: Bibliography
Currently
there have been a few solar sail powered
crafts launched into space so far and the
technology still
remains in a developmental stage. There
are a few prominent applications so far
with some coming up while
other attempts have been made most failed
due to problems with deploying or
traveling to space.
- Japan's
IKAROS in 2010
was the
first solar sail application
to be successfully deployed
which was sent on a mission to
Venus and then the far side
of the sun.
It's mission
was partly to
transfer data
back about the
solar sail
performance
and it
continues to
travel now.
- The
NanoSail-D was
launched by
NASA later in
2010 to orbit
earth and also
send back data
about the
performance of
the solar
sail. The 10
lb, 100 sq ft
craft spent
240 days in
orbit before
burning up in
reentry.
- In
2015 the
Sunjammer was
scheduled to
launch as a
final test
before the
technology is
used in other
missions. The
craft will be
launch to the
L1-Lagrangian
point 900,000
miles from
earth and
deployed from
there to
travel to a
point 1.8
million miles
from earth.
The craft will
have a surface
area of 13,000
sq ft. making
it the largest
solar sail to
date.
Currently the
launch in
indefinitely
suspended due
to budget
problems.