The idea of entrance sunlight with sails to travel among satellite is not modernistic . It was first thought of by Kepler in 1608 . But the developments achieved in the last ten suggest that solar cruise technology is almost ready for frequent use .
Among the fistful of projects that have been tested and deployed , there ’s the Planetary Society ’s citizen - fundedLightSail-2 , which will be launch on June 22 aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket . The mission will see a 5 - kilo ( 11 - pound ) CubeSat deploy a fisticuffs ring - sized sail that will be use to move the tiny satellite to a higher orbit , more or less 720 km ( 450 international mile ) above the reason .
The sail measures 32 square meters ( 344 square feet ) but is only 4.5 microns thick , somewhat thinner than a typical wanderer web filament . It is made of Mylar , a especial type of stretched polyester film , and has seams every few inches so that a rip wo n’t spread if the sail is hit by infinite debris or micrometeorites .
" Forty year ago , my professor Carl Sagan shared his dream of using solar sail spacecraft to explore the cosmos . The Planetary Society is realise the aspiration , " Planetary Society CEO Bill Nye said in astatement . " Thousands of people from all over the public came together and supported this missionary post . We could n’t have done it without them . Carl Sagan , and his colleagues Bruce Murray and Louis Friedman , created our governing body to invest people everywhere to promote space scientific discipline and geographic expedition . We are go for launching ! "
The levy reach deputation is gestate to last one calendar month , during which fourth dimension the semi - major axis of the orbit will increase by several hundred meter every day . The organization is not designed to maintain a rotary orbit , so as one side of the compass increases , the other will decrease . atmospherical drag will eventually be enough to slack the craft down and make it fall back to Earth , where it will burn up in the atm .
LightSail-2 is the follow - up deputation of LightSail-1 , which worked as a technology proof - of - conception for the upcoming mission . The Japanese Space Agency successfully used a solar cruise in itsIKAROS ( Interplanetary Kite - craft Accelerated by Radiation Of the Sun ) mission , which reached Venus in 2010 , demonstrating the technology is viable for travel between major planet .
More missionary post are presently in the works to show that this engineering can be used around Earth and even in the tabu Solar System .
