News on Solar Sails

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Latest News on Solar Sails

February 22, 2006

• Spaceflightnow.com: Japanese infrared space observatory goes into orbit - Japan launched the ASTRO-F infrared telescope (now named "Akari"). A solar sail was a secondary payload, described (in Japanese) in the ASTRO-F/M-V-8 data sheet. From the article:
  " Another apparatus catching a ride to space aboard the M-5 rocket was a deployment test mechanism containing a solar sail made of aluminized polymer film that was supposed to deploy a maximum diameter of around 35 feet beginning just over eighteen minutes after liftoff. Two cameras positioned near the device would capture images of the critical unfurling of the solar sail for downlink to the ground. The experiment is a follow-up to a sub-orbital test conducted in 2004. "

February 8, 2006

• NASA's Centennial Challenges Program Seeks Input On New Prize Competitions.
  " NASA's Centennial Challenges Program released today draft rules for six new prize competitions. NASA is seeking external comments and collaborating organizations in order to finalize and initiate these Challenges.
  The six prize competitions encompass a range of capabilities and technologies, including: on-orbit propellant provisioning, lunar astronaut rovers, space suits, advanced power storage, orbital sample return, and solar sails. "

November 14, 2005

• Space Services Inc.: October 11 2005: NOAA Awards Space Services Inc. a Contract to Assess Next Generation Solar Wind and Advanced Telecommunications Space Systems.
  " A team led by Space Services Inc. (SSI), a client of the Houston Technology Center, has been awarded a contract from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to assess commercial opportunities in developing and deploying next generation solar wind and telecommunications space systems. The SSI team, comprised of private companies, will examine cutting edge technologies to achieve detection of solar storms. "
• The Planetary Society: September 30 2005: The End of Cosmos 1, the Beginning of the Next Chapter
  " September 30, 2005: Cosmos 1 was-and is-a great effort, and one we are proud The Planetary Society tried to do. Our independent grassroots organization built and launched a spacecraft whose technology promises to one day open up interstellar travel. ... With our members' support, we are raising funds to build and fly another solar sail, and we are seeking new sponsors. "
• JAXA: October 25 2005: Solar Radiation Pressure Force acting on Hayabusa Station Keeping
  " Hayabusa has kept its position controlled since it arrived at the Gate Position, 20 km from Itokawa. The biggest disturbance worked is the Solar Radiation Pressure force. The force is simply Light Force acting on everyone everyday. From bright walls, also from heaters, we receive this small force that is never felt on the ground. It is due to the photons that come from the Sun or anything illuminating. The force becomes large when the projected area becomes large and also when the exposed surface has high reflectivity. It is 1/100 with respect to the ion engines thrust, but ten times larger than the gravity of Itokawa at the Home Position. "

August 4, 2005

• NASA Marshall Space Flight Center: NASA, Industry Partner Test 20-Meter Solar Sail System. Press release and images of the 20-meter L'Garde solar sail that recently completed testing at the NASA Glenn Plum Brook Station in Sandusky, Ohio. Previously, another 20-meter sail by ATK Space Systems was tested at the facility.

July 21, 2005

• NASA Science Mission Directorate: NASA Selects Advanced Technology Providers. Try the Google News story if you have trouble reading the official release. L'Garde was selected to conduct further studies of their solar sail technology for the next phase of the New Millenium Space Technology 9 (ST9) mission. After their studies and those of the other technology providers are complete, one technology will be selected to fly as ST9.
• The Plain Dealer: Setting sail on sun-power research: Technology for space travel being tested in a vacuum in Sandusky, by Madison Park. A story covering solar sails in general and the recent tests of L'Garde's 20-m square solar sail in the giant thermal-vacuum chamber at the NASA Glenn Plum Brook Station.
• The Planetary Society: Volna Failure Review Board Reports on Loss of Cosmos 1. The Planetary Society executive director Louis Friedman comments on the results of the Volna launch failure review board.

June 26, 2005

• The Planetary Society: Solar Sail Update, June 25, 2005: The Story of Cosmos 1 is Not Over: A Personal Report - by Louis Friedman. Planetary Society executive director and Cosmos 1 project manager Louis Friedman reflects on the Cosmos 1 mission. Despite losing the spacecraft to a launch vehicle failure, the project accomplished much. A solar sail spacecraft was developed, built, and launched in a partnership between a space advocacy organization and private enterprise. The press coverage was substantial and very positive. Stay tuned to the Cosmos 1 web page for future information.

June 18, 2005

• The Cosmos 1 solar sail mission is set for launch on Tuesday, June 21, 2005. Various updates are available on their website including videos by Louis Friedman and Bill Nye and two updates under the "What's New" section as well as the Cosmos 1 Weblog.

May 24, 2005

• The Planetary Society: Solar Sail Update, May 23, 2005: Cosmos1 Ships in Preparation for June Launch: First Solar Sail Spacecraft Ready for Daring Flight.
  Cosmos 1, the world's first solar sail spacecraft, has shipped in preparation for a launch window that opens on June 21, 2005, traveling from the test facility of Lavochkin Association in Moscow to Severomorsk, Russia. The innovative and first-of-its-kind solar sail, a project of The Planetary Society and Cosmos Studios, will launch atop a converted ICBM from a submerged Russian submarine. It will deploy in Earth orbit and attempt the first controlled flight of a solar sail.
• NASA In-Space Propulsion: Marshall's Solar Sail Propulsion Team Deploys Solar Sail System at NASA Research Center.
  Engineers at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., and their industry partner, ATK Space Systems of Goleta, Calif., recently reached a milestone in the testing of solar sails -- a unique propulsion technology that uses the Sun's energy to propel robotic spacecraft. The team successfully deployed a four-quadrant, 20-meter solar sail and boom system at NASA Glenn Research Center's Plum Brook facility in Sandusky, Ohio.

April 25, 2005

• The Planetary Society: Solar Sail Update, March 25, 2005: Final Check-up and Preparations for Shipping. The Cosmos 1 solar sail is undergoing final preperations for launch. The project web page shows May 31st, 2005, as the launch date.
• NASA's Marshall Center to Begin Test of 20-Meter Solar Sail Technology That Could Use Sun's Energy for Future Space Missions. Through April and July, NASA will test two 20-meter wide solar sail designs at the NASA Glenn Research Center's Plum Brook Station in Sandusky, Ohio. This is the media advisory for the first test deployment on April 27, 2005, of ATK Space System's (formerly Able Engineering) solar sail system.
• Columbia News Service: Solar sails: harnessing the sun's rays to explore galaxies, by Robert Tuttle. I and others in the solar sail community were interviewed in this story on the present state and the future of solar sailing.

March 10, 2005

• A 58 MB 12-minute video on the Columbus 500 Space Sail Cup has been made available by one of the creators, Greg Granville. The video shows animations of several of the solar sail designs intended to compete in the the Columbus 500 Space Sail Cup, as well as introduction to solar sailing. Also includes a news segment from NBC on the Znamya space mirror and solar sailing. I have also placed a link to the video in the Web Links -> Documents section of this site.

February 10, 2005

• The Planetary Society: Solar Sail Update, February 9, 2005: A Pre-Launch Review. All flight components have been delivered and tested, and a full mission sequence has been simulated with the flight computer. Some necessary corrections and fixes were done as a result of the testing. After reviewing the progress, the estimated launch period has slipped to some time in April, rather than March 1st to April 5th.

February 3, 2005

• NASA Press Release: NASA Selects Technology Validation Experiments. NASA's New Millenium Program has selected four teams to develop a suite of technologies for flight validation on the Space Technology 8 (ST8) Mission. AEC-Able Engineering, Inc., was selected to demonstrate their SAILMAST, an ultra-light graphite mast intended for solar sail construction.

January 5, 2005

• The Planetary Spciety: Solar Sail Update, December 23, 2004: Gearing Up for the Launch - by Louis Friedman. The Cosmos 1 mission is on track for a March 1, 2005, launch. The spacecraft complete, and the team is on track to complete all testing by mid-January.
• NASA Living with a Star: Solar Sail Technology and Applications Conference agenda. Many of the papers and movies shown at the Solar Sail Technology and Applications Conference in September, 2004, are available for download.

November 10, 2004

• The Planetary Society: Launch Date Set for Cosmos 1, The World's First Solar Sail Spacecraft. The Planetary Society announced a launch period of March 1 to April 7, 2005, for the Cosmos 1 solar sail mission. The final launch date will be determined by the Russian Navy, because the launch vehicle - Volna - is a submarine launched ballistic missile modified for launching satellites into orbit. The spacecraft is built and is undergoing final checkout to prepare for launch.
  Other coverage:
  • Space.com: Planetary Society's Cosmos 1 Solar Sail Ready for Flight
  • BBC News: Solar sail craft gets launch date
  • CNN.com: Date set for solar sail spacecraft launch

November 8, 2004

• NASA's Centennial Challenges program has released two Requests for Information and one Announcement of Partnership Opportunity relating to upcoming challenges. The Announcement of Partnership Opportunity mentions "A station-keeping solar sail" as a potential Flagship Challenge - space missions with prizes ranging from millions to tens of millions of dollars.

Added August 25th, 2004

• The Solar Sail Technology and Applications Conference is being held at the Greenbelt, Maryland, Marriot, September 28-29th. The deadline for poster abstracts and pre-registration is September 6th.

Added August 11th, 2004

• The Planetary Society, Solar Sail Update, August 8, 2004: Spacecraft Electronics Delivered for Final Assembly, by Project Director Louis Friedman. Space Research Institute (IKI) completed qualification testing of the flight electronics, and delivered them to the spacecraft builder NPO Lavochkin for integration into the spacecraft. This allows final assembly of the spacecraft, and launch either late this year or early 2005.

Added August 10th, 2004

• NASA MSFC: NASA team successfully deploys two solar sail systems. NASA's Solar Sail Propulsion Team and industry partners L'Garde Inc. and Able Engineering successfully completed deployment tests of two solar sail design, 10-meters wide, in vacuum chambers simulating the space environment. Testing of the L'Garde sail was completed in July, and Able's in May.
  • Able Engineering: press release
• Japan's Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) performs deployment test of solar sail films in space. A suborbital S-310 rocket launched from Uchinoura Space Center on August 9th, 2004. Two solar sail films, one clover-shaped, and the other fan-shaped, were deployed and filmed from the rocket.

Added June 9th, 2004

• The NASA Centennial Challenges program is holding a workshop from June 15-16th in Washington DC to gather ideas, develop rules and gauge competitor interest, and promote teaming of competitors for the various challenges. A session on solar sail missions is being held June 16th from 4-5pm.

Added June 3rd, 2004

• Solar Sailing: Technology, Dynamics, and Mission Applications by Colin R. McInnes has gone into its second printing. It is currently available from the publisher, Springer-Verlag.

Added May 5th, 2004

• The Planetary Society: Progress report on Cosmos 1 solar sail mission for March 26th, 2004. Planetary Society executive director Louis Friedman presented a paper on the Cosmos 1 mission to the American Astronautical Society Space Flight Mechanics Conference in February. At the time of writing, all electronics were complete except for the radio, and flight software testing was nearing completion. The earliest predicted launch is in September 2004.
• Team Encounter: Team Encounter president testifies before U.S. senate. Team Encounter President Charles Chafer testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation February 18, 2004 at a "field hearing" in Houston.

Added December 17th, 2003

• LA Weekly: Quark Soup: Space(F)light: Sailing the solar wind to the stars - Margaret Wertheim reports on the Planetary Society's Cosmos 1 solar sail project, and solar sailing in general.
  Editor's note: The author correctly explains that solar sails are driven by sunlight. But, there is a "solar wind" that is different from sunlight. It is composed of charged particles, whereas sunlight is photons.
• Space.com: Reaching for Interstellar Flight - Leonard David reports on the difficulties of interstellar flight, and interviews Steven Howe of Hbar Technologies, who is developing the concept for one solution: the antimatter sail.

Added October 14th, 2003

• Scientific American: Light Sails to Orbit - The November 2003 Scientific American reports on the Cosmos 1 solar sail mission. The story includes comments from NASA JPL engineers. Only available to subscribers.

Added September 26th, 2003

• The Planetary Society: Solar Sail Launch Delayed; Spacecraft Testing Goes Forward - The launch of the Cosmos 1 solar sail mission will be delayed from October 2003 to 2004. This has been done to allow time for thorough integration and testing of the spacecraft.
• Ithaca Times: Solar Powered - Ithaca Times covers the Cosmos 1 solar sail mission, as well as a some solar sail history.
  Editor's note: While James Clerk Maxwell did first predict light pressure from his groundbreaking work on the electromagnetic wave nature of light, he did not discover photons. That was a discovery of quantum mechanics, which came much later.

Added September 15th, 2003

• SpaceRef: NASA Solar Sail Flight Validation Experiment RFI - Marshall Space Flight Center has issued a request for information (RFI) seeking industry partners to develop a solar sail flight demonstration system.
• E4Engineering: Setting sail on a solar mission - E4Engineering reports on the solar sail development effort of the European Space Agency and the German Aerospace Center. They intend to construct a 20x20 meter prototype that is intended to be launced within the next two years. It may be launched on a Volna submarine launched rocket, like the Cosmos 1 mission. The German Aerospace Center has already built a number of prototypes, including a 20x20 meter ground demonstration sail.
• SpaceRef: Finding the Origin of the Pioneer Anomaly - A paper on arXiv.org by Michael Martin Nieto and Slava G. Turyshev. "Analysis of the radio tracking data from the Pioneer 10/11 spacecraft at distances between 20 - 70 AU from the Sun has consistently indicated the presence of an anomalous, small Doppler frequency drift. The drift can be interpreted as being due to a constant acceleration of a_P = (8.74 \pm 1.33) x 10^{-8} cm/s^2 directed towards the Sun. Although it is suspected that there is a systematic origin to the effect, none has been found. As a result, the nature of this anomaly has become of growing interest. We have developed a concept for a deep-space mission that would reveal the origin of the discovered anomaly. A number of critical requirements and design considerations for such a mission are outlined and addressed. In particular we explore the use of a solar sail as a means to reach a great distance from the Sun in a short period of time."
• SpaceRef: Measuring the Interplanetary Medium with a Solar Sail - A paper on arXiv.org by Michael Martin Nieto and Slava G. Turyshev. "A solar sail mission to deep space could determine the density of the interplanetary medium by measuring the drag force on the huge sail with radiometric navigational data. Thus, a mission similar to the Interstellar Probe might consider retaining its sail beyond the orbit of Jupiter to measure the matter density in deep space. Such an experiment would a yield an independent, new type of measurement of the interplanetary medium and should be pursued."

Added September 10th, 2003

• Space.com: Fresh Spin on Solar Powered Asteroids - A new study in the September 11th 2003 journal Nature suggests that sunlight may have a significant and predictable effect on the spin of asteroids over long time periods. This is similar to the Yarkovsky effect which causes asteroids to drift off course, discovered in 1900 by a Russian engineer of the same name.
• Astrobiology Magazine: Bridging the Gap: Part I - A discussion between Freeman Dyson, Louis Friedman, and Bruce Murray on interstellar travel. Select here for the second part of the discussion:
  • Bridging the Gap: Part II
  • Bridging the Gap: Part III

Added September 5th, 2003

• NASA Selects Commercial Space Ride for Technology Experiment - NASA has selected the Team Encounter Flight One solar sail test mission to fly the Inertial Stellar Compass experiment as a secondary payload. Also see:
  • Team Encounter Inertial Stellar Compass page
• Astrobiology Magazine: Bridging the Gap: Part I - A discussion between Freeman Dyson, Louis Friedman, and Bruce Murray on interstellar travel. Select here for the second part of the discussion:
  • Bridging the Gap: Part II

Added August 19th, 2003

• Cosmos 1: Solar Sail Launch Vehicle Passes Crucial Test - The Volna launch vehicle that will be used for the Cosmos 1 solar sail successfully tested seperation of an engineering model of the spacecraft from the third stage of the rocket. This was done after the Volna third stage failed to deploy during two previous suborbital launches.
• Robert van de Walle: circular Miura-Ori fold - Robert van de Walle has applied the Miura-Ori folding technique to a ring-shaped sail. This link has also been added to the Web Links -> General Information section.

Added August 7th, 2003

• Space.com: Riding the Sun: Maiden Flight Looms for Solar Sail Satellite. Space.com reports on the Cosmos 1 solar sail mission.
• Guardian Unlimited: Unique sails pitch bids to cut costs with no-frills space flights. Guardian Unlimited reports on the Cosmos 1 solar sail mission.
• Team Encounter: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment and Team Encounter From Science Fiction to Science Reality. A copy of the movie Solaris will fly on Team Encounter's solar sail mission out of the solar system, Humanity's First Starship.

Added July 29th, 2003

• Cosmos 1 solar sail unfurls one of its 47-foot blades at centennial of flight in NY. The Planetary Society and Cosmos Studios are displaying a replica of one of the eight sail blades of the Cosmos 1 sailcraft at the "Centennial of Flight" exhibit at Rockefeller Center in New York City from July 29th to August 18th.
• Solarsails.info website is launched. This is an updated version of the web site on solar sails that I have maintained since 1995. The last location was: http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~diedrich/solarsails/.
• Benjamin Diedrich, author of this website, has started a new job at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, where he is working on new spacecraft systems - including solar sails - for Earth weather, space weather, and climate monitoring missions.
• To the Poles! NOAA and Team Encounter study a new destination for Team Encounter Flight One. NOAA is supporting Team Encounter's assessment of the feasibility of flying our Team Encounter Flight One solar sail into a special orbit over the North or South Pole. Future solar sail spacecraft could fly in this orbit to better understand Earth's climate. Source: Team Encounter
• The Cosmos 1 Update, July 9, 2003: Hardware Continues to Pass Tests. "This past month, the first two stages of the Volna launch vehicle passed their re-qualification tests with our solar sail spacecraft. At the Makeev Rocket Design Bureau in Miass, Russia, the Cosmos 1 engineering model underwent vibration and other dynamical tests to simulate launch during the firing of the first and second Volna stages." Source: The Planetary Society
• NASA-Langley Research Center signs Memorandum of Agreement with Team Encounter to provide technical support for design and development for Team Encounter FLight One. Source: Team Encounter
• New Scientist publishes story "Solar sailing 'breaks laws of physics'". This story is based on a web page written by Dr. Thomas Gold. [Editors note: Here is my refutation.]

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. (Link no longer available) 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.