News on Solar Sails

Added December 10, 2002

• Microwave Sciences announced plans to perform microwave beam tracking and propulsion experiments on the Cosmos 1 solar sail mission. These experiments will use the Deep Space Network Goldstone antenna. The tracking experiments will accurately measure Cosmos 1's velocity and acceleration for the purpose of validating models of a solar sail's acceleration from sunlight and other factors. This is in addition to on-board accelerometers. The propulsion experiments will use the full power of the Goldstone antenna (500 kW) to accelerate Cosmos 1. Although this acceleration will be small (10^-7 meters/sec^2, compared to 10^-4 from sunlight), the accelerometers and antenna measurements should detect it. For further details, check out the following:
  • Near-Term Beamed Sail Propulsion Missions: Cosmos-1 and Sun-Diver by James and Gregory Benford.
  • Microwave Sciences recent papers on beamed propulsion.
  • Beamed Propulsion: Out Of the Lab Into Space by Leonard David of Space.com.
  • Satellite To Be 'Boosted' By Microwave Beam Proposed from SpaceDaily.
• Set sail on a sunbeam by Duncan Steel discusses solar sailing in Guardian Unlimited.
• Solar Thruster Sailor presents a spacecraft design that combines solar sails and thrusters into a unique combination, as well as other space system concepts.

Added September 22, 2002

• Robert L. Forward passed away on September, 21st, 2002. He was a good friend, mentor, and inspiration to myself and many others. This is a message from Bob's partner at Tethers Unlimited, Rob Hoyt.
• NASA awards funding to solar sail research. NASA's Office of Space Science gave three funding awards for solar sail technology development. The three projects are 'Development of a Striped-Net sail and Inflatable boom model' at L'Garde Inc., 'Development of a CP1 sail and Coilable boom model' at Able Engineering, and 'Development of an integrated set of solar sail simulation tools' at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

Added May 14th, 2002

• Space Systems Engineering Group web page of the University of Glasgow Aerospace Engineering department includes many of the presentations given at the Royal Astronomical Society discussion meeting on Solar Sail Applications that took place on May 10th, 2002. There is also information on solar sail research.

Added April 20th, 2002

• Final programme for the Royal Astronomical Society discussion meeting on Solar Sail Applications is now available. This event takes place on Friday May 10th 2002 in London. The organizers are Professor Colin McInnes of the University of Glasgow (colinmc@aero.gla.ac.uk) and Professor Carl Murray of the University of London (c.d.murray@qmul.ac.uk).

Added March 26th, 2002

• Progress Continues, Launch Date Slips For Cosmos 1: The First Solar Sail. A number of factors arose that neccessitated a schedule slip in order to keep program performance, risk, and cost the same. A new launch data should be announced in Late March.
• Space Sailing is a new web site by Jerome Wright that draws from his book Space Sailing. This web site includes information on light pressure, missions, ship designs, operations, and history.
• General Astronautics and Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL) are jointly offering low-cost solar sail spacecraft built around SSTL's SNAP-1 spacecraft.

Added March 14th, 2002

• NOAA purchases rights to solar sail spacecraft design. This news brief in Space News says that NOAA has signed a one year $50,000 data purchase agreement with Team Encounter for certain test data on their 76 meter solar sail and its inflatable boom support structure.

Added February 28th, 2002

• Royal Astronomical Society Discussion Meeting: Solar Sail Mission Applications. This meeting is being held in London on May 10th, 2002. It is organized by Professor Colin McInnes of the Univeristy of Glasgow and Professor Carl Murray of the University of London.
• Team Encounter is holding a preliminary design review on February 28th and March 1st 2002. Questions are solicited from the public on the project web site by 10am central time on March 1st.
• Team Encounter and L'Garde performed successful tests on February 14th and 15th 2002 in Tustin, California, of the lightweight inflatable booms that will support the solar sails used on the Team Encounter spacecraft.

Added February 23rd, 2002

• Team Encounter successfully tested the deployment of a sail segment on January 15th, 2002. L'Garde performed the test and is constructing the sail for Team Encounter. The sail is made of 1 micron aluminized Mylar, which is much thinner than any previously available sail films.

Added February 6th, 2002

• Planetary Society camera delivered to russians for the Cosmos 1 solar sail mission. An imaging camera built by Malin Space Science Systems was presented to Planetary Society executive director Louis Friedman on December 7th, 2001. The camera was delivered to the Space Research Institute in Moscow on December 14th, 2001, for integration into the Cosmos 1 solar sail spacecraft.
• NASA research announcement - Research Opportunities in Space Science 2002 - includes a solicitiation for solar sail technology development. NASA's Office of Space Science released a solicitation for proposals dealing with space science for 2002. The "In-Space Propulsion Technologies" section solicits proposals for 1st generation solar sail prototype testing and simulation tools. The total award through 2004 is up to $8 million. Further details on the solicitation are available at: http://www.spacetransportation.com/code_s/inspaceannounce.html.

Added November 18th, 2001

• New plan for Cosmos 1 solar sail is to perform the orbital flight test of an eight-bladed solar sail instead of repeating the sub-orbital deployment test.
• The Union pour la Promotion de la Propulsion Photonique (U3P) celebrates it's 20th anniversary with a new version of it's website.

Added July 27th, 2001

• The Cosmos 1 solar sail test vehicle was successfully launched from a submarine in the Barents Sea on July 20th. Unfortunately, the command to separate the test vehicle from the rocket was not issued, so the test deployment of two solar sail blades was not carried out. The Planetary Society and Cosmos Studios are still on track to launch the fully operational solar sailing vessel, Cosmos 1, at a later date.
• The technology partners for Space Technology 7 were announced on July 20, 2001. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Swales Aerospace, Arizona State University, and AEC-Able Engineering were selected to provide technology for the solar sail segment. Space Technology 7 is a project under NASA's New Millenium Program

Added July 14, 2001

• Cosmos 1 Solar Sail Sub-Orbital Test Flight: All Systems Go for July 19th Launch The Cosmos 1 sub-orbital test vehicle has been repaired after being damaged in a pre-launch test in April. The spacecraft is now ready for launch. Cosmos 1 is a project of The Planetary Society and Cosmos Studious.

Added May 4, 2001

• The Gossamer Spacecraft Exploratory Research and Technology Program winners have been announced under NASA Research Announcement NRA 00-OSS-06. Many solar sail research projects are included under this award.
• The Cosmos 1 Report reports that an accident during testing of the suborbital deployment test vehicle for their solar sail vehicle. Deployment pyrotechnics for the spacecraft went off, resulting in partial deployment on a test stand. The mission has been delayed until repairs can be made.

Added April 10, 2001

• The Cosmos 1 Report gives an update on the Cosmos 1 solar sail mission. The suborbital test launch on a Russian submarine launched Volna rocket is scheduled for April 26th.

Added February 27, 2001

• CNN and Space.com are carrying stories on the Cosmos 1 solar sail mission:
  • CNN - Private space group plans solar sailing voyage
  • Space.com - Space Group Plans Solar Sailing Voyage

Added February 26, 2001

• The Planetary Society and Cosmos Studios are planning the Cosmos 1 solar sail mission. This is to be the first solar sail mission. A suborbital test launch of the sail deployment will be conducted in April from a Russian submarine launched Volna rocket. Later this year, a Volna will launch the mission into orbit.

Added February 7, 2001

• The Space Technology 6 (ST6) Announcement was released on January 31, 2001. Solar sailing was not one of the technologies represented by any of the eight selected teams.

Added October 11, 2000

• NRA 00-OSS-06: "Gossamer Spacecraft Exploratory Research and Technology" is a NASA research announcement from the Office of Space Science (OSS). Proposals are solicited for the development of very large and lightweight structures and apertures for space applications such as solar sails, telescopes, antennas, and solar power collection.

Added September 30, 2000

• Space Technology 6 (ST6) Technology Announcement Notice. NASA's New Millenium Program has released a notice of the impending ST6 Technology Announcement, which is sceduled for release on October 10th. NASA has selected solar sail/sun shade deployment as one subsystem technology area for validation.
  Thanks to Patricia Mulligan for this story.

Added July 12, 2000

• The Interstellar Probe is a mission proposal to send a solar sail propelles spacecraft out of the solar system at high velocity (14 AU/year). One of it's primary goals is to travel outside the influence of the sun's solar wind and directly measure the composition of interstellar space.

• Sail Technology Beamed to Future Space Exploration. This press release from JPL on July 5, 2000, discusses two successful experiments in beam-propelled sailing. The tests used a new lightweight yet stiff carbon-carbon microtruss fabric for the sail material. One experiment used microwaves to push the sail material vertically, while the other used a laser to push a sail horizontally.

  Also see:

  • Space sails cruise through demonstration tests - from CNN Technology: Space

Added June 28, 2000

• Star of Tolerance is a new web page describing a proposed project to place a solar sail in Earth orbit that will serve as an international peace monument. The page shows images and movies of the DLR solar sail ground demonstration (see What's New).

Added June 4, 2000

• At the National Junior Science & Humanities Symposium on April 27-30 2000, Ulyana Horodyskyj won first place for her project, Sailing Into Space: Reflecting on a Solution. Ulyana has also won awards for her project at the Northeastern Ohio Science and Engineering Fair, Ohio Junior Science and Humanities Symposium, University of Akron District Science Day, and the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair.

Added May 28, 2000

• NASA charts course to sail to the stars on largest spacecraft ever built - This story from the Marshall Space Flight Center Newsroom discusses work at the center to develop an interstellar solar sail probe.

• Scientists propose sailing to the stars on solar wind - A story by CNN on the same mission as discussed in the story above.

Added March 2, 2000

• SPACE.com Exclusive: Breakthrough in Solar Sail Technology - This SPACE.com articles discusses a recently developed carbon fiber sail material.

Added March 1, 2000

• JPL Accomplishes Historic Laser Sail Demonstration - This Space.com articles discusses recent experiments performed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory which pushed a piece of sail material attached to the end of a pendulum using lasers.

• NASA's Vision: Probes At Stars by 2100 - A Space.com article about NASA's plans for interstellar missions in the next century. There is a discussion of solar sailing for this purpose, including an image of the trajectory used by a solar sail to escape the solar system at high speed.

Added February 29, 2000

• Russians May Hoist Europe's Solar Sail - According to an article by Space.com, Russia has offered a Dnepr rocket launch to test the deployment of a 20 x 20 meter solar sail in space, like that tested on the ground by DLR and ESA last December.

Added February 22, 2000

• Defending Earth: Fact Vs. Fiction - a Space.com special by Michael Paine about preventing asteroids from striking Earth. There is a sidebar on using solar sails for this purpose.

Added February 8, 2000

• The Planetary Society Seminar on Possible Solar Sail Test. Pasadena, California. Tuesday, March 7, 2000.

• Living With a Star is a proposed program at Goddard Space Flight Center that would begin a 5 year, $511 million program to study the sun in detail, including the development of solar sails. For additional information, see:

  • Clinton to Propose Program for Goddard - by the Washington Post.
  • Highlights of NASA 2001 Budget for the Goddard Space Flight Center. Look under the "Space Science FY 2001 Budget" (HTML or PDF)

Added January 19, 2000

• The Solar Blade Solar Sail Project at the Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute has a web page detailing the project. A second page, from the Robotics Institute Projects list.

Added December 23, 1999

• The German Aerospace Agency (DLR) conducted a fully successful ground deployment test of a 20 m x 20 m lightweight solar sail on December 17th, 1999. From the DLR Solar Sail page, look under "What's New" followed by "SOLAR SAIL GROUND DEMONSTRATION."

Added November 17, 1999

• The Gossamer Spacecraft Initiative Workshop has a new web page. Information on this NASA initiative and papers from the October 12th-13th, 1999, workshop are available for download.

Added September 14, 1999

• The Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute is working on the Solar Blade nanosatellite that will demonstrate solar sailing with a small heliogyro. For more information, see Space News September 10th, 1999, page 6.

Added September 10, 1999

• Travelin' Light is a new article about solar sails by Ron Cowen in Science News.

• In a New Millenium Program press release, the Nanosat Constellation Trailblazer mission was selected for the Space Technology 5 mission over a technology demonstration of solar sailing and a new disturbance reduction system.

• Dr. Alfred W. Differ of Interworld Transport gave a talk on the commercial transport of near Earth object (NEO) resources by solar sail at NASA Ames Research Center on August 12th, 1999.

Added June 14, 1999

• Interworld Transport performed a test flight of their solar sail deployment hardware on May 23, 1999, on a JP Aerospace rocket test flight. The flight verified that the test hardware could survive launch stresses on the order of 30 G's. Later flights are expected to perform deployment tests.

Added June 7, 1999

• Robert Zubrin and Cindy Christensen of Pioneer Astronautics have been awarded 2 contracts from the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts on Magnetic Sails and Ultralight Solar Sails for Interstellar Travel.

Added May 14, 1999

• Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corporation has also been selected as a Phase A Study Team member for the spacecraft design of the solar sail study for Space Technology 5. The other winners are listed below under May 5, 1999.

Added May 5, 1999

• Space Technology 5 Technology Announcement Selected Proposals. JPL has announced the winners for the Space Technology 5 technology call under the New Millenium Program. The winners for the solar sail portion are:

  • ILC Dover, built the Mars Pathfinder airbags and every astronaut spacesuit since the Apollo program.
  • L'Garde Inc., built the Inflatable Antenna Experiment flown from the space shuttle in 1996.
  • SRS Technologies, manufactures advanced thin films, in particular CP-1 which, next to Kapton, is a likely candidate for the sail film.

Added April 9, 1999

• Solar Sailing: Technology, Dynamics and Mission Applications by Colin R. McInnes is a new book on solar sails. This is the most comprehensive and up-to-date book on solar sails ever published. You can order the book from the publisher through any bookstore, such as Amazon.

Added April 8, 1999

• Setting Sail for the Stars - An article from NASA Space Science News discussing new ideas for interstellar solar sails brought up at the 1999 Advanced Propulsion Research Workshop by Robert Forward and Geoffrey Landis. In particular, the use of grey carbon solar sails is discussed, because of their high heat tolerance.
  See also the Mining Co. Space article.

Added March 15, 1999

• Sarah Gavit has been appointed the Associate Manager for the Interstellar and Solar Sail Technology Program, effective March 8th, 1999. Here is the formal announcement from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Added March 10, 1999

• The New Millenium Program at NASA has announced that it is seeking members for its Space Technology 5 (ST5) Project Formulation Teams. The three project concept areas in ST5 are:

  • Constellation of small satellites
  • Solar sails
  • Disturbance reduction systems

Added February 16, 1999

• The Sky Over Berlin, February 1999, discusses using a solar sail for a fast pluto flyby towards the end of the page.

Added February 5, 1999

• NASA's budget for space science includes funding for gossamer spacecraft. Note this document requires Adobe Acrobat Reader. These are large thin film deployable structures, including solar sails. The document says on page 3, paragraph 2, that developing this technology will help NOAA and the USAF with their space weather and solar activity monitoring programs. NOAA and the USAF are developing GEOSTORMS just for this purpose.

• The Znamya 2.5 space mirror experiment has been called off because the mirror became entangled with a communications antenna during deployment. Znamya 2.5 and the Progress cargo spaceraft which it is attached to be dropped into the atmosphere today. For further details, see the following articles:

  • BBC News
  • Florida Today

Added February 4, 1999

• I saw Mir and the Znamya 2.5 space mirror tonight at about 6:55 pm pacific standard time, about an hour after sunset from the countryside near Tacoma, Washington in the U.S. The two spacecraft rose from west by northwest and were separated by about 1 degree. The lead spacecraft was much brighter than any satellite I have ever seen, so I assume it was Znamya 2.5, even though the mirror did not fully deploy. About halfway across the sky, they winked out as they passed into Earth's shadow.

• Znamya 2.5 space mirror failed to open today for its scheduled illumination test. The mirror snagged on an antenna of the Progress resupply spacecraft from which it was deploying. After two unsuccessful attempts to free the mirror and continue deploying it, mission controllers are considering ending the experiment.

  • BBC News
  • Florida Today

Added February 3, 1999

• The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released its fiscal year 2000 budget on Monday, February 1, which provides $4.3 million of funding for the Geostorms program. For more information, look at page 1-14 of the Executive Summary or download the entire budget document from the NOAA FY 2000 Budget page and search for the multiple references to "GEOSTORMS". This coincides with the release of the rest of the United States federal government's budget for 2000.

• Znamya 2.5 will be deployed from a Progress resupply spacecraft next to the Mir space station at 1 pm Moscow time (11 am Greenwich Mean Time) on Thursday, February 4th. For viewing details, look under "Znamya 2.5 experiment will carry out February 4, 1999!" after selecting "English" or "Russian" on the Space Regatta Consortium page.
  Current location of Mir.
  Space News features an article on Znamya in the February 8, 1999 (Vol. 10, No. 5) issue.

• Colin R. McInnes has written the first textbook on solar sails called Solar Sailing: Technology, Dynamics and Mission Applications which will be available next month. For a preview, take a look at the table of contents and the cover.

Added January 13, 1999

• The Way to Go in Space - A Scientific American article about options for launching into orbit and moving around space more economically. There is a detailed sidebar on light sails.

Added November 1, 1998

• Znamya-2.5 - The newest Russian space mirror, Znamya-2.5, was placed on the Russian Mir space station by a Progress M40 on October 25th. Follow the previous link for further details.

Added August 17, 1998

• Solar Sails for the Operational Space Community by Patricia Mulligan. This Spaceviews article describes the current state of solar sails. In particular, recently conceived applications for very near-term low and moderate performance sails are discussed.

Added May 4, 1998

• Solar Polar Sail Mission Study - A new mission concept report from the JPL Space Physics Research Element. Provided as PDF and Postscript files.

Added March 27, 1998

• NASA Web Search Engine. NASA has set up a search engine that lets you search all of NASA's web pages. Try a search for "solar sail." The first couple pages of results are the most interesting.

• Third IAA International Conference on Low-Cost Planetary Missions Abstracts

  • Propulsion Trades for Space Science Missions
  • To the Sun and Pluto With Solar Sails and Micro-Sciencecraft
  • ODISSEE - A Proposal for Demonstration of a Solar Sail in Earth Orbit
  • New Millennium Mission Concepts for Deep Space-5

• Solar Sailing by Eric Drexler. A discussion about solar sails in general and high performance solar sails in particular.

Added January 26, 1998

• 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.

Added December 12, 1997

• GEOSTORMS. A mission to levitate a solar storm warning spacecraft closer to the sun than the sun-earth L1 point using a solar sail. Look under "Smallsats" and "GEOSTORMS."

Added December 2, 1997

• 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.

Added May 14, 1997

• Solar and Laser Driven Lightsails. Alasdair Allan has set up a new version of his page. This page gives a very thorough description of the concepts of solar and laser sailing. The original can still be found at the Lunar Institute of Technology.

Added February 10, 1997

• Workshop on Solar Sail Propulsion. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is holding a workshop on solar sails Thursday, February 13th, 1997. I (Benjamin Diedrich) will be attending. I will be setting up a page about the workshop afterwards.

• Solar Sail Navigation School. This is an excellent Java applet available on the U3P solar sail web site which allows you to control a solar sail starting from an orbit near the Earth.

• Solar Sail Homepage. This is a new solar sail webpage currently under construction.

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

• Nickel Orbit by Bob Eggleton. A page to order a professional painting of a solar sail asteroid mining vessel.

Added January 7, 1997

• Earth to Orbit Transportation Bibliography. Entry 32, 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.

Added January 6, 1997

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

• Solar sail haiku by Dave Niedens.

• Leading Technologies: Ultra-High Efficiency Interplanetary Propulsion. NASA roadmap of leading technologies.

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

Added December 7, 1996

• Solar Sail Capability for Earth-Sun Synchronous Orbit. Table of sail areal density and distance for these orbits.

• Mercury Magnetospheric Explorer. Utilizes a solar sail to reduce 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). NOAA is examining implementing this mission in the near future.

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

• Solar sail research by Takashi Tamura. Requires a Japanese capable web browser.

Added November 6, 1996

• 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.

Added October 24, 1996

• JPL to Host Workshop on Inflatable Space Technology. Discussion included use of inflatable solar sail structures.

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

• Union for the Promotion of Photonic Propulsion (U3P) - general information on solar sails and U3P by Olivier Boisard. This page has recently been updated. It now contains many new images, Quicktime movies, VRML solar sail models, and technical reports.

Last modified: Wed Dec 11 00:45:59 PST 2002