Solar sail technology is very close to becoming an engineering reality and it will soon be used in the exploration of the solar system and beyond. This fascinating book provides an accessible introduction to solar sails and details how they work and what they will be used for in the exploration of space. It also examines current plans for solar sails and how advanced technology, such as nanotechnology, might enhance their performance. Coverage shows how solar sail propulsion will make space exploration more affordable and demonstrates how access to destinations within (and beyond) the solar system will become within reach.

Solar sailing - using the sun as a propellant - offers the possibility of low-cost long-distance missions that are impossible with conventional spacecraft. This first comprehensive book on this propulsion method provides a detailed account of solar sailing, at a high technical level, but in a way accessible to the scientifically informed layperson. Solar sail orbital dynamics and solar radiation pressure form the foundations of the book, but the engineering design of solar sails is also considered, along with potential mission applications.

Louis Friedman, Executive Director of the Planetary Society, presents the first comprehensive look at the science and history behind solar sailing and other designs for space travel. Serious science readers and space buffs alike will be fascinated by designs for the square sail, disk sail, and the heliogyro (which features flexible sails many kilometers long). Friedman compares solar sailing to other proposed propulsion sytems such as ion drives and laser propulsion, and takes an insider's look at the million-dollar JPL project of the late '70s, which was the first attempt at a working model. Illustrated.

The range of solar sailing is very vast; it is a fully in-space means of propulsion that should allow us to accomplish various mission classes that are literally impossible using rocket propulsion, no matter if nuclear or electric. Fast and very fast solar sailings are special classes of sailcraft missions, initially developed only in the first half of the 1990s and still evolving, especially after the latest advances in nanotechnology. This book describes how to plan, compute and optimize the trajectories of sailcraft with speeds considerably higher than 100 km/s; such sailcraft would be able to explore the outer heliosphere, the near interstellar medium and the solar gravitational lens (550-800 astronomical units) in times significantly shorter than the span of an average career (~ 35 years), just to cite a few examples. The scientific interest in this type of exploration is huge.

SAILING THE SEA OF OUTER SPACE! Arthur C. Clarke's "Sunjammer" updated an ancient dream, taking millions of readers on a sailing regatta in space. His stirring tale sparked a tech revolution that's coming true today-interplanetary vehicles, navigating across the Solar System on inexhaustible torrents of sunlight! Many others have since explored the coming, renewed age of sail. This intriguing anthology-updated for a new century-features both up-to-the-minute facts and future visions of solar sailing in a fascinating mix of stories, essays, and illustrations. Contributors range from JPL scientists to Isaac Asimov, Poul Anderson, Kevin Anderson, and Ray Bradbury. From classics by Arthur C. Clarke, David Brin, Joe Clifford Faust, and Larry Niven, to the latest missions by NASA and the Planetary Society. Even interstellar possibilities-explored by Robert L. Forward & Joel Davis-are now carried even farther in reports by space pioneers like Les Johnson, Robert Staehle & Louis Friedman. This 21st Century Edition, specially crafted by David Brin and Stephen W. Potts, also includes a lost gem by Jack Vance.

Wright was one of the first to introduce the concept of propulsion using light pressure. He reports on his continuing work, mostly at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, for scientists, engineers, and space enthusiasts with little technical background. The first space sailors are probably in junior high now. Printed on acidic paper. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Solar sails use the sun’s energy to fly spacecraft, or “flight by light.” It sounds like something out of a science fiction novel. In fact, it is, first being mentioned in Jules Verne’s From Earth to the Moon in 1865. It's been used as a way for characters to travel through space in many other books and movies, including Tron in 1985. Today, solar sails are a reality, and readers learn how their technology works as well as how successful trials with solar sail apparatuses have been. Could light energy be the best way to move through space in the future? Readers find out for themselves.