2024-05-10 18:30:38
This sheet, which looks like a ship’s sail made of a material similar to aluminum film for wrapping food, is certainly a sail, but not for a ship but for a spacecraft. And it is not the wind that should affect it but the sunlight. The photons of light exert pressure against the surface on which they hit. This pressure is minuscule, but the extremely light solar sails make the most of it, to the point of being able to propel a spacecraft that is also light enough. The thrust accelerates the ship very slowly, but after enough time, the ship can reach a speed it would never achieve through conventional methods of space propulsion. In the photograph, this solar sail is being monitored at a NASA facility. (Source: NCYT from Amazings)
(Photo: NASA)
#sail #boat