When it comes to long-distance space travel, the biggest problem is that spaceships can only get as far as the fuel onboard allows. In 1964, a British writer Clarke came up with the idea of "solar sailing "in his science fiction. He wrote of large, mirror-like sails that collect power from the sun and free spaceships from the limitation of fuel.
This sci-fi idea was first successfully brought to reality (现实)in 2010 by Japan's IKAROS satellite. Ever since then, the technology has improved mission by mission, with the latest being NASA's Advanced Composite Solar Sail 3 (ACS3).NASA has recently announced that it's going to team up with Lithuania's satellite-building company NanoAvionics to test its new sail in low-Earth orbit.
To many, a solar sail (太阳帆) may look like a giant solar panel (太阳能电池板), but it actual works very differently. While solar panels take in energy from the sun and change it into power solar sails use photons(光子) given off by the sun to create direct power. Besides, solar panels are big and heavy to carry, while solar sails are just the opposite.
According to Abbott, the CEO of NanoAvionics, the upcoming low-Earth orbit trial with NASA, if successful, will be followed with deep-space missions that involve larger solar sails. These are ideal for low-cost and long-distance space travel because fuel will no longer be a problem.
"It started as a sci-fi dream, "Popular Mechanics reporter Jennifer Leman wrote. "Now it could be the future of space flight."
