the.com/solar sails
a spacecraft that surfs on starlight instead of burning fuel to get there.
means a propulsion system using a giant reflective sheet to catch the push of photons and slowly accelerate through space.
from kepler noticed comet tails always point away from the sun and guessed light itself has force; tsiolkovsky and tsander formalized the idea for spacecraft in the early 1900s.
thrust sourcephotons bouncing off, not fuel burning
tiny pushforce on earth-sized sail: about a kilogram
keeps acceleratingno engine cutoff, just endless gentle shove
materialmylar film thinner than a human hair
for instance
ikaros — jaxa 2010 probe, first craft solely sail-propelled to venus
lightsail 2 — planetary society cubesat, raised orbit by sunlight in 2019
nasa acs3 — 2024 mission testing a composite boom sail design
breakthrough starshot — proposed laser-pushed sails aiming for alpha centauri