Web Links

Just as the internet is growing dramatically, so is interest in solar sails. The last time I checked, I found 305,000 hits for "solar OR light OR space sail OR sails OR sailing" on Google.

Therefore, I will provide a selection of web pages, rather than attempt to link to everything.

Here are some links to search the internet for solar sail information:

• Google search for "solar OR light OR space sail OR sails OR sailing"
• Google search for links to www.solarsails.info
• Google search of pages related to www.solarsails.info

General Websites

• Cosmos 1: The First Solar Sail
• Space Sailing
• Union for the Promotion of Photonic Propulsion (U3P)
• DLR Solar Sail Homepage
• Solar Sail Technology Development at JPL
• Interworld Transport: Commercial Solar Sailing
• Solar Sails - Old version of this website
• Arizona State University: Homepage of the ASU Solar Sail Research Project

Missions

Past Missions

• Cosmos 1: The First Solar Sail
  • KIA Systems information on Cosmos 1
• Space Regatta Consortium - Znamya project - While not an actual solar sail, the Znamya project tested large lightweight mirrors in space. Solar sails are discussed as a variation of the design. Also see: Space Frontier Foundation - Znamya.

Missions in Development

• NASA New Millenium Program Space Technology 9

Mission Concepts

• Solar Blade Solar Sail Project - A nanosatellite Heliogyro project at Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute.
  • Robotics Institute: Solar Blade Solar Sail - Robotics Institute project page.
• Washington University: Project Aria: Suncatcher Deep Space Probe
• NASA Interstellar Probe

Documents

Also See: Books and Papers

General

• Columbus 500 Space Sail Cup Video - 58 MB, 12-minute video from 1991 showing 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. Video prepared by Greg Granville, one of the original creators of the video.
• NASA Living with a Star: Solar Sail Technology and Applications Conference agenda. The agenda and a selection of talks and videos from the September, 2004, conference.
• Spacesailing.net: Bernd Dachwald's research on solar sailing
• Royal Astronomical Society - Solar Sail Mission Applications Seminar - May 10th, 2002. Contains a number of presentations about current work on solar sails.
• Interstellar Sailing Ships - articles on solar and laser sails, magnetic sails, and others by Ges Seger and Alasdair Allan.

Sail Design and Architecture

• Very Fast Solar Sails - by Chauncey Uphoff
• Able Engineering - Scalable Solar Sail Subsystem Design Considerations - See number 13
• High Performance Solar Sails and Related Reflecting Devices - by K. Eric Drexler
• Solar Thruster Sailor (STS)
• AsterAnts: A Concept for Large-Scale Meteoroid Return and Processing
• AlAA 97-2762 Inflatable Solar Sails for Low-Cost Robotic Mars
• Earth-to-Orbit Transportation Bibliography - See application 32 "Moon-Earth Momentum Exchange" for a solar sail application.
• Pioneer Astronautics - Solar Sail Microspacecraft
• Nesting-Hoop Solar Sail
• Solar Sails Would Be Segmented To Minimize Stresses
• Solar Sails Would Be Made From Carbon Nets

Dynamics and Mission Concepts

• Solar Sails at Asteroids: Close Proximity Operations for Scientific Missions (Abstract) - by E. Morrow, D.J. Scheeres, and D. Lubin.
  • Four journal and conference papers on orbit operations at asteroids
• Prediction of wrinkle amplitudes in square solar sails - by Wong, Y. W., Pellegrino, S. and Park, K. C.
• Strategies for Solar Sail Mission Design in the Circular Restricted Three-Body Problem - by Allan McInnes (Alternative link)
• Solar Polar Imager
• Multi-Bounce Laser-Based Sails - by Robert A. Metzger and Geoffrey Landis. Discusses the theory of recycling laser light by multiple reflections between a solar sail and reflector at the laser source. This would allow much smaller lasers to accelerate a sail.

Interstellar

• Interstellar precursor mission concepts
• Pioneer Astronautics - Ultralight Solar Sail for Interstellar Travel
• The Interstellar Probe - an Introduction to, and Rationale for The Interstellar Probe.

Research

• Spacesailing.net: Bernd Dachwald's research on solar sailing
• Arizona State University: Homepage of the ASU Solar Sail Research Project
• DLR Solar Sail Homepage
• ILC Dover Solar Sails and Inflatable Booms
• Kyushu University Solar Sail Research - in Japanese
• Solarvision - Cross-university research on solar sailing.
  • NASA Microgravity University flights - Scroll down to "Photon Propulsion for Gossamer Spacecraft".
• RISE 2001 Summer Scholars - David Vasquez - "Conceptual Analysis of Solar Sails and Integration of Piezoelectric Ceramics as Sensors and Actuators"
• SRS Technologies: Solar Sails
• University of Glasgow Solar Sail Mission Analysis: Colin McInnes
• NASA Goddard: Sun-Earth Connection - Solar sails are identified as the highest priority propulsion technology for this program.
• NASA In-Space Propulsion Technologies: Solar Sails
• Microwave Sciences - Microwave sail propulsion experiments

General Information

• Spin Stabilized Ring Solar Sail - by Robert van der Walle. Shows the Mirua-Ori folding technique applied to a ring-shaped sail.
• Solar Sails in Science Fiction - by Alan C. Elms
• Build Your Own Cosmos-1 Solar Sail Spacecraft Scale Model!
• Beyond Rocketry - See: Solar Sails and Laser Sails
• Newsgroup postings on solar sails - by Henry Spencer and Jordin Kare
• Artemis Project: Racing Solar Sails Around the Moon
• BBCi - Space - Solar Sails
• Far-out Pathways to Space: Solar Sails
• futureSPACE Library - Solar Sails
• Warp Drive When: Ideas Based On What We Know - See "Robert Forward's interstellar laser sails"
• Innovative Technologies from Science Fiction for Space Applications: Solar- or Light Sails
• Light Sail (Interstellar Flight: The Possibilities) - by Paul Woodmansee
• Sailing by Sunlight - Windward Community College Aerospace Exploration Lab
• Scientific American: Light Sails - by Henry M. Harris (for subscribers only)
• Wikipedia: Solar Sail
• Fuelling Interplanetary Travel: Solar Sails - by Dennis Ward

Magnetic, Plasma, and Other Space Sails

• Plasma Sail Concept Fundamentals by Peter Delamere and others. A NASA supported independant analysis of the physics of plasma sails.
• Advanced Electric Propulsion - including plasma sails (or mini-magnetospheric plasma propulsion - M2P2).
• Characterization of Dusty Plasmas for Solar Sails
• Magnetic Sail - Wikipedia
• Solar and Electromagnetic Sails for the Mars Cargo Mission
• Hbar Technologies Antimatter Sail Concept
• Stellar Windjammers: The Magnetic Sail Space Drive - an article by Sean Barrett on magnetic sails for Roleplayer.

Art, Entertainment, and Miscellaneous

• Solar Sail Construction Platform - a painting by Randy Asplundh, showing large solar sails under construction in Earth orbit. Also has a concise description of solar sailing.
• Scifaiku Top Ten - Solar Sail
• Paintings of solar sails by Don Dixon
  • The Sails of Tau Ceti
  • Sunjammer
  • Solar Sailor
  • Tacking Sunward
• Light Race - painting by Pat Rawlings depicting solar sails in a race to the moon.
• Solar Sail - an illustration by Joe Bergeron for the astronomy textbook The Cosmic Perspective.
• Laser Light Sail - an illustration by Rick Sternbach of a lander leaving an interstellar multi-stage laser sail to explore an alien world. Scroll down to see it.
• Solar Sail - a NASA Marshall Space Flight Center illustration of a solar sail on the Astronomy Picture of the Day site.
• Space Animation solar sail images - images of solar sails, laser sails, and magnetic sails.