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This website contains information on solar sailing, an old idea but a new technology for moving around and doing things in space. Solar sails are very large and lightweight mirrors that are pushed through space by sunlight. Traditionally, spacecraft have used rockets or thrusters, which propel material in one direction to travel in the other. To learn more, take a look through the sections listed below.
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Press release (English) Press release (Japanese)
JAXA confirmed that the IKAROS spacecraft has generated the expected acceleration from the pressure of sunlight. This effect has been predicted for over a century since James Clerk Maxwell's studies of electromagnetism. Every spacecraft flown since Sputnik has been affected, to varying degrees, by sunlight pushing on it. Several have used solar pressure to their advantage. This is the first time a spacecraft specifically designed to propel itself on sunlight - a true solar sail - has done so. Congratulations to the IKAROS team on their accomplishment! I look forward to seeing what else IKAROS will accomplish in the days to come.
See Also
--Ben 20:28, 9 July 2010 (UTC)
http://www.jaxa.jp/press/2010/06/20100628_ikaros_j.html (Press Release in Japanese) (Google translation to English)
JAXA's IKAROS project released images taken of the sail with the attitude control actuators active. The actuators consist of thin-film LCD panels along the edge of the sail which change reflectivity. While reflective, the panels reflect more sunlight and generate more thrust at the edge of the sail. While non-reflective, they generate less thrust. By phasing which side of the spinning sail is more or less reflective, they should be able to turn the sail. The images show the LCD panels alternating between reflective and non-reflective.
--Ben 19:53, 28 June 2010 (UTC)
http://www.planetary.org/programs/projects/solar_sailing/20100625.html
LightSail-1, the Planetary Society's new ultra-light Cubesat-based solar sail spacecraft, has passed its Critical Design Review. At a two-day meeting in Pasadena, a team -- including JPL project veterans Bud Schurmeier, Glenn Cunningham, Viktor Kerzhanovich, and Aerospace Corporation's Dave Bearden -- reviewed the LightSail-1 project from soup to nuts and gave us the thumbs up to proceed with building the spacecraft's hardware and software.
--Ben 15:52, 28 June 2010 (UTC)
http://www.jaxa.jp/press/2010/06/20100616_ikaros_e.html
A small camera with an antenna was ejected from the IKAROS solar sail spacecraft and took images of the fully deployed sail on June 16, 2010.
--Ben 17:30, 21 June 2010 (UTC)
http://www.jaxa.jp/press/2010/06/20100611_ikaros_e.html
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency succeeded in deploying the IKAROS solar sail. Deployment began June 3rd 2010. On June 10th 2010, they confirmed that the sail was deployed. Congratulations to the IKAROS team!
--Ben 17:26, 21 June 2010 (UTC)
The IKAROS Blog (Google translation to English) reports that the promary deployment of IKAROS has been completed, with a deployment length of 5.3m and deployed size of 10m from end to end.
See Also
--Ben 16:08, 4 June 2010 (UTC)
Correction: IKAROS deployment is still underway. The sail is being deployed in stages, with the state of the sail and spacecraft verified along the way.
--Ben 15:32, 7 June 2010 (UTC)
