Who needs fuel – or even engines – when you could use the sun to push a spacecraft along?
NASA has announced its experimental ACS3 solar-sailing spacecraft is working as expected, after it was spotted tumbling in the night sky.
The 80 m2 (860 sq ft) Advanced Composite Solar Sail System (ACS3) successfully spread its sails last week. The spacecraft uses pressure produced by solar radiation to move – doing away with conventional rocket propellant. NASA is testing the sail in the hope that its design, and the materials used, are viable for future vessels.
As the boffins put it:
Questions were raised this week after the instrument – which launched in April and is now in Earth’s orbit – was observed to be slowly tumbling, gyrating, or wobbling.
