Electric Sails        An electric sail uses the dynamic pressure of solar wind to thrust the spacecraft. The idea behind an electric sail is that it uses an electric field to deflect solar wind protons. The sail part of it is not an actual sail, it is a long straight conducting tether. Because the wires are conductive there is current flowing through them and therefore is an electric field created around the wire. The functional part of an electric sail isn't actually the wire itself; it's the electric field that is formed around the fire that causes the spacecraft to move as if a thrust force was acted upon it. Below is a image of an electric sail and the idea of the wire working to thrust the object in another direction. Image from: "ESTCube orbiidil 2" by Taavi Torim - Taavi Torim. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ESTCube_orbiidil_2.jpg#/media/File:ESTCube_orbiidil_2.jpg"

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