Solar Sails
Solar sails, a proposed method of spacecraft propulsion, would use radiation pressure from the Sun as a motive force. Private spacecraft Cosmos 1 was to have used this form of propulsion. The idea was proposed as early as 1924 by Soviet scientist Friedrich Zander.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has successfully unfurled a solar sail in space which has already succeeded in propelling its payload with the IKAROS project.
Read more about this topic: Radiation Pressure
Famous quotes containing the words solar and/or sails:
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—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
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—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)