Late astronomer Carl Sagan's vision of a solar powered spaceship has come to life and will receive a test flight on May 20.
The Planetary Society, which was founded by Sagan, will run the test to see if the four Mylar sails deploy properly. Its orbit won't be high enough to make use of the Sun's energy yet, but a full flight test is expected in April 2016.
It works by using radiation from the Sun to push the craft along through space, just like a sailing boat would use wind.
Japan's IKAROS probe, and NASA's NanoSail-D are both solar powered crafts which have already received test flights, but the hope is that LightSail is cheap enough at $4.5 million, and light enough to affect the future of space travel.
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The Planetary Society, which was founded by Sagan, will run the test to see if the four Mylar sails deploy properly. Its orbit won't be high enough to make use of the Sun's energy yet, but a full flight test is expected in April 2016.
It works by using radiation from the Sun to push the craft along through space, just like a sailing boat would use wind.
Japan's IKAROS probe, and NASA's NanoSail-D are both solar powered crafts which have already received test flights, but the hope is that LightSail is cheap enough at $4.5 million, and light enough to affect the future of space travel.
Continue reading…
Continue reading...