Solar Sails from Sci-fi to Reality

Tomorrow, barring delay or mishap, a U.S. filmmaker,
an international association of space buffs and Russian aerospace organizations
will use a leftover Soviet ballistic missile to put the first "solar
sail" into orbit.

This unusual device, which looks like a 6,500-square-foot flower with
eight triangular, mirrorlike petals, does not use wind, as Kepler predicted.
Instead, it hopes to show that sunlight’s gentle push might one day enable
a spacecraft to reach speeds far greater than anything achieved by a
mere rocket. Deployed, the petals are about 1 1/2 times the size of a
basketball court.

The Dowbrigade remembers reading about, and dreaming
of, solar sail craft as a boy in the 60’s. We never dreamt we would actually
see one go up…..

from the Washington
Post