Solar sails

Giovanni Vulpetti, Les Johnson, Gregory Matloff

"The first part of this book describes our heritage of exploration in water-borne sailing ships, then moves quickly into the details of space-vehicle propulsion. Space sailing, the authors point out, is "free," meaning it overcomes the problems inherent in having to carry along heavy, costly, and often dangerous propellants. Also discussed are advanced space-vehicle propulsion systems, such as nuclear, solar-electric, nuclear-electric and antimatter rockets. The second part of the book describes various sail systems using either sunlight or the "solar wind." Laser and microwave systems are also described, and the relative merits of each system are compared. The third major section describes the design, fabrication and steering challenges associated with solar sails - they are significant, but not insurmountable. Finally, a fourth section goes into details of space-sailing technology...

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