Web Links

Projects and Missions

• GEOSTORMS - A proposed mission to levitate a solar storm warning spacecraft closer to the sun than the sun-earth L1 point using continuous thrust from a solar sail for early detection of solar storms. Look under "Smallsats" then "GEOSTORMS" and "GEOSTORMS mission concept."

• Space Regatta Consortium (SRC) and Znamya - The SRC is developing large thin film deployable structures for such space applications as illumination of polar cities and solar sails. The SRC successfully deployed Znamya, a 20 meter diameter spinning mirror from a Progress resupply spacecraft on February 4, 1993 after it undocked from the Mir space station. Znamya 2.5 was deployed exactly 6 years later on February 4, 1999. Znamya 2.5 was 25 meters in diameter, had improved reflection, and a control system allowing pointing of reflected sunlight at specific point on Earth. Unfortunately, Znamya 2.5 is having problems deploying. Click here for more info.
  SRC is primarily sponsored by Rocket Space Corporation Energia, and is licensed by the Russian Space Agency.
  Other Znamya pages:
  • RSC Energia's Znamya Page
  • Space Frontier Znamya Page

• Interworld Transport - The world's first solar sailing company, which has launched and deployed test solar sails in the upper atmosphere on JP Aerospace rockets. Started by Dr. Alfred W. Differ.

  Solar Sail Maneuvering of Remote Sensory Equipment - submittal by Dr. Alfred W. Differ to the Small Business Innovation Research Program.

• Union for the Promotion of Photonic Propulsion (U3P) - general information on solar sails and U3P, by Olivier Boisard. This site contains many images, Quicktime movies, VRML solar sail models, and technical reports.

• DLR Solar Sail Homepage. The solar sail homepage has been updated with information about their research activities. Included is information about the ODISEE demonstration mission, Mercury orbiter and asteroid rendezvous missions, and sail structure technology. There are also numerous pictures of solar sail spacecraft.

• The Microlight Solar Sail - a craft only meters across designed by UK SEDS.

• Solar Sail Project. This page describes a solar sail project currently underway at the Space Systems Dynamics Laboratory at Kyushu University in Japan. In japanese.

• Forever Bound Offers Unique Space Entertainment. Forever Bound is planning on sending a solar sail out of the solar system carrying human tissue from participants.

Research, Reports and News

• Solar Sails for the Operational Space Community by Patricia Mulligan. An article in SpaceViews on recent interest in solar sails for the "operational space community" of NOAA, DOE, and the USAF. GEOSTORMS is discussed.

• The Sky Over Berlin, February 1999, discusses the possibility of sending a solar sail to perform a fast flyby of Pluto towards the end of the page. There also some nice renderings of a square solar sail and Znamya.

• Solar Sail Trajectories and Design. General information page on solar sail trajectory research at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Department of Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering.

• Solar Sailing. By K. Eric Drexler. A discussion of the high performance solar sail invented by K. Eric Drexler for his master's thesis from MIT's department of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

• Light Sails for Pre-Stellar Destinations. By Seth D. Potter and Gregory L. Matloff.

• Workshop on Solar Sail Propulsion. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is holding a workshop on solar sails Thursday, February 13th, 1997.

• NASA Technical Report Server solar sail abstracts - searches for "solar AND sail" at NASA's Technical Report Server.

• Interstellar Flight - laser sail propulsion by Geoffrey A. Landis.

• Lunar Solar Sail Race Notes by members of the Artemis Society.

• Space Systems projects at the University of Glasgow Department of Aerospace Engineering. Submitted by Colin R. McInnes.

• Proposed Methods of Interstellar Travel, including solar, laser, and microwave sails, as well as charged particle beam propelled magnetic sails. By Nathan Millard.

• JPL to Host Workshop on Inflatable Space Technology. Discussion included use of inflatable solar sail structures. Here are some pictures from the inflatables demo. Captions will follow soon.

• Future Mission Concept NRA Results. Scroll down for the Solar Polar Sail Mission submitted by Marcia Neugebauer, which is one of 19 out of 70 mission plans selected by NASA for further study.

• New Technology Requirements for solar-wind magnetospheric coupling, including solar sails. Includes a table of how far from the Earth or sun synchronous orbits can be maintained with sails of varying performance (mass to area ratio).

• Mercury Magnetospheric Explorer. Description of a possible mission to measure Mercury's magnetosphere using a solar sail for reduced flight time.

• Using a Solar Sail for a Plasma Storm Early Warning System. This plan uses a solar sail to provide levitation over the sun and active control to maintain a solar storm detection system closer to the sun than the first Sun-Earth Lagrange point (L1).

• Leading Technologies: Ultra-High Efficiency Interplanetary Propulsion. Includes solar electric and solar sail propulsion.

• Non-Chemical Rockets and Solar Sails. Discussion of different spacecraft propulsion methods, including radiation pressure on solar sails.

• Earth to Orbit Transportation Bibliography. Entry 32 in the bottom left frame, the MOON-EARTH MOMENTUM EXCHANGE, discusses using solar sails to transfer mass between the Earth and Moon. Included is a picture of an orbital sail fabrication machine.

• Solar and Laser Driven Lightsails by Alasdair Allan. This page gives a very thorough description of the concepts of solar and laser sailing.

Other Solar Sail Pages

• Java Solar Sail Simulators. These are excellent Java applets available on the U3P solar sail web site which allows you to control a solar sail starting from an orbit near the Earth. Or, try racing a solar sail.

• Mariner 10, the first spacecraft to use solar sailing techniques by using the pressure of sunlight reflecting off of the solar panels for attitude control.

• Solar sail haiku by Dave Niedens.