Wind in Space

Taking the yacht out for a sail past Jupiter’s moon Europa to see an enormous geyser bursting forth from the frozen surface; its farfetched true, but the solar sail is not. One need only look at a comets tail for a simple confirmation of the theory behind them. A comets tail does not trace the path it has travelled, but rather is projected for the side opposite of the sun which is buffeting it with a stream radiation and high energy particles known as solar wind.  Solar sails take advantage of this phenomenon similarly to a ship sailing on the ocean. NASA Is planning to demonstrate the solar sail as a viable means of transit through space in 2014 with the Sunjammer project. Sunjammer won’t be the first sail to be flown but it is easily the largest with its 124ft square sail (1300ft^2). When the sail is all packed up the whole craft is about the size of a washing machine and weighs in at a mere 70Kg. This remarkable device could prove solar sails as a way to increase the range while decreasing the costs on future missions. Depending on the success of the Sunjammer we could be seeing many more sails launched in the years to come. The majority of theses would be used for relatively mundane tasks like clearing orbiting debris, and   functioning as satellites. They have the potential however to unleash a new age of space exploration were humans tack their sails trek to some not so distant planets.