X-Nico

unusual facts about solar sail



Eugene Mallove

In 1981, he and Gregory Matloff wrote a classic paper about using solar sails to reach Alpha Centauri, the nearest star to our sun.


see also

Cosmos 1

One of Cosmos 1's solar sail blades was displayed at the Rockefeller Center office complex in New York City in 2003.

LGarde

In 2003, LGarde, together with partners JPL, Ball Aerospace, and Langley Research Center, under the direction of NASA, developed a solar sail configuration that utilized inflatable rigidized boom components to achieve 10,000 m2 sailcraft with a real density of 14.1 g/m2 and potential acceleration of 0.58 mm/s2.