Solar Sail Construction
Platform
$ 449.00
15X24
Acrylic
Solar Sails are the lightest and
most delicate of reflective films. They are enormous, for the
way they propel the spacecraft is by actually catching the sun's
rays. Believe it or not, because it is a scientific fact and not
fiction, that the light from a star such as the sun actually has
a very very small force it can exert. We don't notice it on earth
because of so many other factors, but in space there is enough
solar light pressure to actually move objects. It is a gradual
effect, but it builds up with time. Eventually a spacecraft can
get moving pretty fast. There have already been designs of real
solar sails that have been built by scientists around the world.
Really!