NASA is about to test its Advanced Composite Solar Sail System, which if is successful will unlock a new method of cheap space travel in the solar system and perhaps even beyond. On April 23 NASA ...

Nasa has unfurled a solar sail in space for the first time, aiming to harness the propulsive power of sunlight for interstellar travel. The US space agency revealed that it had deployed the solar sail ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. A large triangular sail made of silver foil is unfurled in a hangar as scientists look on. NASA has reached a significant ...

Depending on the mission they've been created to fulfill spacecraft can be powered by a variety of technologies. Presently, the most widespread is the one that uses propellant and rocket engines. But ...

NASA has launched the latest attempt to test solar sail propulsion technology. The ACS3’s solar sail is made of a reflective polymer and is held by a boom made of carbon fiber composite material.

The stakes are high on several fronts: propulsion, climate technology, and the future of the night sky. Solar sails promise propulsion without propellant, but they also raise questions about orbital ...

NASA’s Advanced Composite Solar Sail System (ACS3), a dazzling spacecraft designed to make use of the tiny amounts of radiation pressure exerted by sunlight for propulsion, is still spinning through ...

Alfredo has a PhD in Astrophysics and a Master's in Quantum Fields and Fundamental Forces from Imperial College London.View full profile Alfredo has a PhD in Astrophysics and a Master's in Quantum ...

The mission launched in April to test a cost-effective form of space travel that relies on the Sun, but it's not going as planned. Reading time 2 minutes It’s been a few months since launch, and ...

Kongsberg NanoAvionics (NanoAvionics) has announced the successful launch of Europe‘s first solar sail mission aboard SpaceX Transporter-6. The 6U nanosatellite nicknamed ‘Alpha’ was manufactured for ...

NASA has launched the latest attempt to test solar sail propulsion technology. The Advanced Composite Solar Sail System (ACS3), consisting of a CubeSat the size of a microwave oven and a solar sail, ...