Research Report

Solar Sailing

Theodore Yu
October 26, 2017
PCS181 011
Dr. Margaret Buckby
500761867
 In the field of science, solar sail technology and its application of “sailing” through space

without the use of gas has been around for many years. Only now in recent years, however, has

this technology begun to come up and be tested on. This report will focus on the nature of solar

sailing technology, its current applications, and limitations, as well as its future potential in

interstellar travel.

The basic idea is that spacecraft catches the sunlight radiating off the surface of the sun.

Since light is made of small particles called photons, although they do not have mass, they exert

a small enough amount of pressure (around 9.2 micro-newtons per square meter of sail) and

momentum onto the solar sail to get it moving. An example is given in the book Human

Spaceflight: From Mars to the Stars by Louis Friedman, executive director of the Planetary

Society, suggests that if a solar sail had a surface area of 100 square meters while carrying a 9 kg

spacecraft, the acceleration of the entire system would be 0.0001m/s2 {2}. The speed of the

spacecraft may be minute at first, but it builds up over time. Also, since this occurs in space,

there are no day and night cycles and the process is more or less continuous.

The sails themselves are constructed from thin sheets of reflective material supported by

a lightweight structural framing system. Additionally, finding the right material for the sails is

challenging, as it must be both lightweight and able to withstand a range of temperatures coming

from the sun. Materials used in recent solar sails include aluminized Mylar and CP-1 {7}. The

sail is stored tightly within the spacecraft until it is deployed in space. When released from the

spacecraft the sail can extend from a few to a few hundreds of meters, depending on its

destination.
 Currently, the applications of solar sail technology are applied to tiny space crafts no

bigger than lunchboxes. This technology carried through space by sunlight must have as little

mass as possible to travel the farthest it can. However, as Friedman states in an article from

Astrobiology Magazine “Solar sailing is the only known technology we have on Earth that will

someday take us to the stars,” since “A chemical system [such as] a rocket would run out of gas

long before you get there,” {6}. Yet it is important to clarify that when Friedman talks about

traveling to stars lightyears away, he does not mean physically. The amount of pressure light

exerts is just too small to push a human. Bill Nye, CEO of the Planetary Society, in an interview

concerning the recent advancements in this scientific field, pointed out that there simply will

never be sails big enough to carry humans and accompanying spacecraft throughout the galaxy

or even the solar system {4}. In addition to this, Friedman, in his book, goes even further to say

that humans will physically travel no further than the planet Mars, explaining that the universe

will be explored using technology such as robotics, bioengineering, and possibly artificial

intelligence instead {2}. The subsequent transport of these elements, however, is where solar

sailing technology can thrive. Therefore, while it seems unlikely that solar sailing will ever be

used as a means of human transportation, its potential in interstellar travel makes it an invaluable

area of study and research.

The most relevant and recent application of solar sailing can be seen in the development

and subsequent launch of the LightSail 2 presented by The Planetary Society. This project, due

sometime next year, aims to introduce the first controlled solar sail flight orbiting around the

earth {1}. The sail will be made of Mylar and have a kite-shaped pattern. While previous light

sails in the past few years have been successfully launched and flown in low-earth orbit, the

challenge with LightSail 2 is that it will not only be exposed to the environment of space for a
longer period but will also have to intricately maneuver around to capture the sun’s energy at

certain angles. This is extremely important as the spacecraft must have enough momentum and

energy from the sun in order to keep it successfully in orbit.

Although the idea of solar sailing is only now being fully realized and shaped into a

reality, there are already ideas surrounding its future advancements and applications. Diffractive

solar sails, for instance, are revolutionary in that the light which hits the sails is not reflected but

refracted instead. This technology was designed to address certain issues concerning reflective

solar sails. While reflective sails must be tilted to move in the desired direction, refractive sails

bend the direction of the incident rays to a predetermined angle even when facing the sun

directly. Therefore, this eliminates the need for the tilting and adjusting of the spacecraft and

allows for a more controlled, predictable, and efficient movement through space. It is predicted

that a reflectively coated sail translates 75% of its received electromagnetic momentum into

movement while a diffractive surface translates 100% {8}. In terms of travel time and speed,

these two percentages do not make a noticeable difference, but this technology could become

useful when the efficient use of sunlight becomes more of a necessity. Such as when traveling

farther distances from earth or even interstellar travel where the suns rays are not as strong.

Another popular technological advancement in this area of research stems from the

idea of using concentrated lasers to power solar sails in addition to sunlight. Greg Matloff,

Professor of astronomy and physics in New York came up with this idea as a solution to

interstellar travel {5}. The project attempts to send a small spacecraft the size of a microchip to

Alpha Centauri, the closest known solar system to our own. Matloff envisions completing the 4.3

lightyear journey within 20 years by propelling the spacecraft to a fifth of the speed of light {5}.

Friedman also agrees with Matloff’s ideas, writing that sunlight alone will not “…take us to the
stars” and that you need “external energy” in the form of laser beams {2}. This phased-arrayed

technology surrounding lasers is also being applied to interstellar communication and planetary

defense (in the event earth needs to vaporize an oncoming asteroid for example). Firstly, these

lasers would have to use around 100 Gigawatts of power to accelerate the spacecraft to such

near-light speeds {2}. Secondly, this array of lasers would have to be transported into space and

placed into orbit beforehand. Therefore, while the notion of beam-powered solar sailing

technology has been around for some time, with the amount of moving parts and development

involved, it is going to be decades before this technology emerges.

In summary, focusing our research and funds on solar sailing and the technology that

drives it is important as a first step forward towards the dream of interstellar travel. While

advancements may seem slow now, this technology will have many useful applications in the

future, such as the detection of extra-terrestrial lifeforms, the detection of new stars and other

celestial bodies, as well as improved interstellar communication.

{1} J. Davis, The Planetary Society Blog (2017).

{2} L. Friedman, Human Spaceflight (University of Arizona Press, 2015).

{3} J. Hsu, Scientific American (2017).

{4} A. Manning, Inverse (2017).

{5} Neel V. Patel on September 27, 2017, Inverse.

{6} P. Patel, Space.com (2010).

{7} H. Price, 2001 IEEE Aerospace Conference Proceedings (Cat. No.01TH8542).

{8} G. Swartzlander, Pardon Our Interruption (2017).