Solar Sails Could Reach Mars in Just 26 Days

While SpaceX is working on Starship to carry huge payloads to Mars, the fastest flight times could be accomplished with solar sails. A new paper suggests that a 1 kg payload with a 100 square meter solar sail could reach 65 km/s relative to Mars. They could blast out of the solar system going 109 km/s, and if it's first directed towards the Sun, they could reach 148 km/s, getting to the heliopause in just 4.2 years. This opens up a range of possible missions, like the outer planets, interstellar space, and the solar gravitational lens.

#solarsail

http://arxiv.org/abs/2308.16698

BLISS ([University of California] Berkeley Low-cost Interplanetary Solar Sail) is a proposal to use smartphone and other consumer miniaturization tech to build a swarm of small solar sails acting in concert to explore the Solar System. Attached to each sail would be a low-cost, lightweight (~10g), Linux-powered spacecraft. Possible missions include visits to NEOs and sample returns from comets.

Crowdfunded space missions, perhaps?
https://arxiv.org/abs/2307.11226

#solarsail #spacecraft #space #linux

A solar sail is a type of spacecraft propulsion that uses the pressure of sunlight to push a large reflective sail. Solar sails can travel faster and farther than conventional rockets without carrying fuel. A new solar sail mission is exploring the asteroid belt and beyond.

#solarsail #space #asteroid https://phys.org/news/2023-06-climate-losses-due-natural-disasters.html?utm_source=flipboard&utm_content=HariTulsidas%2Fmagazine%2FArchetypes

Welcome to #Münsingen 🌞 #solarsail https://solarsail.ch/ @KormannStephan
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RT @longi_solar
#LONGi's high-efficiency PV technology is supporting the @solarbutterfly5 team as it reaches Münsingen, Berne. We were excited to witness a 25-year-old solar sail there producing clean energy.

https://twitter.com/solarbutterfly5/status/1644018936613052416
https://twitter.com/longi_solar/status/1646806049100533761

In honor of The Planetary Report Solar Sailing Issue and Planetary Society's extraordinary accomplishment.
https://vimeo.com/798914047
#lightsail #solarsail #spacetravel #space #astronomy #spaceexploration #universe #cosmos #science #blender #digitalart #spaceart

Another fine review of H2LiftShips - Vol 3 - BosonsWave by Prosper Onyido

https://www.h2liftship.com/reviews-bosons-wave

#Review Highlights:

"He stretches our imaginations and intellect as all Sci-fi writers should, but he also satisfies our desire for action and adventure as well. Then there's the humor and intrigue that will have you always turning the page, until you're done. It goes without saying, Bob Freeman has laid the marker down for fellow science fiction writers"
#WritingCommulity
#SciFi
#SolarSail

#SPACETECH || #SpaceX has launched the first #French #SolarSail into space | by D. Chrétien #futurasciences || https://www.futura-sciences.com/sciences/breves/espace-spacex-vient-lancer-espace-premiere-voile-solaire-francaise-7370/ ||

RT @NanoAvionics
Our tomorrow's broadcast of the #SpaceX #Transporter6 mission will kick off the New Space Year with a launch of the first European #SolarSail mission and the world's first formation-flying #satellites to geolocate radar signals!

Join us live to win prizes in the comment below!👇

The Planetary Society's #LightSail2 spacecraft reentered the atmosphere ending a nearly 3.5 year mission to demonstrate the viability of using a solar sail

Funded by members of the non-profit and run by the #PlanetarySociety the mission started operations twice as far out as the International Space Station, used the #SolarSail for propulsion and made 8,000 orbits

https://www.planetary.org/articles/lightsail-2-completes-mission?utm_campaign=lightsail22&utm_medium=email&utm_source=reentry&s_src=lightsail22&s_subsrc=reentry

It also took lots of pictures of our #PaleBlueDot

https://www.planetary.org/space-images?imgkeywords=lightsail-2-image-from-space

#space

Coverage by Space.com of the Near Earth Asteroid Scout solar sail:
https://www.space.com/artemis-1-cubesat-nea-scout-asteroid-silent

#solarsail #spacecraft #space #NEAScout #cubesat

Interesting variation on the standard solar sail.

"A diffractive [solar] sail can work with incoming light at a variety of angles using new metamaterials, in this case ‘metafilms,’ that are man-made structures with properties unlike those of naturally occurring materials."

https://www.centauri-dreams.org/2022/06/07/solar-sailing-the-beauties-of-diffraction/

@readsteven

#Space #SolarSail #Diffraction #Propulsion

Yay! Lightsail 2 is working to expectations.

#SolarSail #LightSail2 #PlanetarySociety #Satellites #Space

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/jason-davis/lightsail-2-successful-flight-by-light.html