NASA plans to launch world’s largest solar sail in 2014

Discovery News : A solar sail is a method for propelling a spacecraft using the impacts of photons and charged particles accelerated by the Sun. In 2010, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency launched the first successful solar sailâpowered craft. With a 200-m ² sail, IKAROS attained a speed of almost 100 m/s and reached Venus six months after the sail was deployed. Now NASA is working with California-based L’Garde to develop Sunjammer, which will be the largest solar sail ever constructed. The 1200-m ² sail will be made from Kapton, a material used in space suits for thermal insulation, solar radiation shielding, and micrometeorite protection. Those three qualities make the material exceptional for absorbing the impact of the solar wind and for surviving debris impacts. The sail’s thrust, although only 0.1 N, is comparable to that of the ion-thruster-propelled Dawn spacecraft, which is visiting the asteroid belt. NASA hopes to launch Sunjammer in 2014. The spacecraft, which will travel about 3 million km, will allow scientists to study the maneuverability and operation of large solar sails.