“ There ’s just a enormously exciting prospect called solar sailing . [ It ] travels on the radiation and subatomic particle that come out of the Dominicus , the wind from the sun . Because it has a constant quickening , it can get you around the inner part of the solar system a mountain quicker … than the usual sorts of rocket propulsion . ”
That ’s our late science ambassador Carl Sagan on a 1976 broadcast of the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson . During the brief interview , Sagan fiddles with what seem like a small lame of can transparency , a modelling that he believed was the future of space travel . It ’s been nearly 30 years since Sagan ’s solar sail visual sense , and now his spacecraft , call LightSail , is finally getting a test flight .
The sail is the creation of The Planetary Society , a non - government organization co - establish by Sagan in 1980 . As far as firsts go , LightSail scores the bronze . Japanand theUShave already successfully tested solar cruise technology . Though LightSail has hitsome snags along the waytoward its first flight , the trade ’s real grandness rely on its makers . Much how SpaceX defined rocket ontogeny for the individual sector , so too could The Planetary Society make solar seafaring actually affordable and sensitive to use . The projection costs only $ 4.5 million and requires no fuel because , duh , solar - powered .
The LightSail will quiz its capability on May 20 , and if all systems are go , it will take to the genius in April 2016 . [ The Washington Post / ExtremeTech ]
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