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http://www.citytech.cuny.edu/isss2010/

The Second International Symposium on Solar Sailing ran from July 20-22, 2010, in Brooklyn, New York. The conference marked a remarkable step forward in the field of solar sailing. Several talks were given on Japan's IKAROS spacecraft, which was celebrated for demonstrating a solar sail spacecraft for the first time, and continues to sail on to Venus. Other talks described several small solar sail "nanosatellites" under development, which are planned to fly over the next few years. Other talks covered recent advances in understanding solar sail orbits, hybrid solar sail / solar electric missions, missions to test relativity, climate & weather observation, space weather, communications, alternative sail designs, and others. Refer to the conference website for abstracts, program, proceedings, and (coming soon) the presentations.

--Ben 14:58, 2 August 2010 (UTC)

Update

• The talks from ISS2010 are now available from the program page.
• The New York Declaration on the state of solar sailing has been released.

--Ben 15:10, 17 August 2010 (UTC)

http://www.jaxa.jp/press/2010/07/20100723_ikaros_e.html

The IKAROS mission succeeded in steering using solar pressure. As the sail spins, liquid crystal devices along the edges change from reflective to non-reflective. Sunlight pushes harder on the reflective panels, so that one sail edge is pushed harder than the other, causing the sail to turn. Spacecraft like Mariner 10 have used solar pressure to point them before.

--Ben 14:45, 2 August 2010 (UTC)

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

• IKAROS Channel July 9 2010 (Japanese) and Google translation to English
• JAXA IKAROS Topics

--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)