Solar Sails on Spacecraft

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Solar Sail

Wired

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Solar Sails and Comet Tails: How Sunlight Pushes Stuff Around

Summary

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70% Informative

NASA is testing a solar sail system that could be pushed by solar radiation in space.

The idea is still in development, but we know it works, but it's still a big step up.

Light travels in waves, which are a sort of “moving displacement” But light waves are different from ocean waves or sound waves, and can travel through empty space.

The strength of the electric and magnetic fields in an EM wave are not independent of each other; if you know E, you can find B.

The stronger the fields, the stronger the interaction with matter.

NASA 's ACS3 solar sail should enable us to go much farther out into space.

It's roughly equivalent to gravitational force of a single grain of a salt in your hand.

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informal

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English

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