First Interstellar Spacecraft May Use Texas-Size Solar Sail
by Mike Wall, SPACE.com Senior Writer
Date: 12 March 2013 Time: 07:00 AM ET
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| The Sunjammer project, slated to launch in 2014, will demonstrate "propellantless propulsion" offered by solar sails. CREDIT: L’Garde |
The first-ever interstellar probe may cruise through space like a boat through the ocean, propelled by super-focused light beamed onto a sail the size of Texas.
Solar sailing is perhaps humanity's best bet for reaching star systems beyond our own in the foreseeable future, some scientists say, though they caution that the first roboticinterstellar flight is not exactly around the corner.
"I think it's 300 to 500 years [away], personally," said Les Johnson, deputy manager of the Advanced Concepts Office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. "I think before we ever really undertake sending something to another star, we will probably have to be masters of our own solar system."
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