solar sail

The first step toward alpha centauri: sailing to Mars

Posted in Hardware on 16th Apr, 2016
by Alex Muller

These lasers sails could drive "space-chips" to Mars in roughly 30 minutes, researchers say.

Chinese scientists persue dreams of solar-powered space flight

Posted in Science on 25th Jun, 2015
by Alex Muller

A team of Chinese scientists believe they could one day develop a fuel-free spacecraft that would be able fly through deep space using only light from the sun.

LightSail Test Mission Declared Success

Posted in Hardware on 10th Jun, 2015
by Alex Muller

The Planetary Societys LightSail test mission successfully completed its primary objective of deploying a solar sail in low-Earth orbit.

LightSail Drama Continues as Spacecraft Wakes for Second Time

Posted in Hardware on 7th Jun, 2015
by Alex Muller

LightSail is back in business, following the second extended outage of the test spacecrafts mission.

LightSail spacecraft is back in touch with Earth after rebooting itself

Posted in Software on 31st May, 2015
by Alex Muller

About a week after its launch on May 20th, LightSail lost the ability to send data to the crew because of a software glitch.