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Projects: LightSail - The Future of Solar Sailing

Project Updates

November 9, 2009: LightSail: A New Way and a New Chance to Fly on Light
by Louis Friedman

Sailing on light is the only known method that can take us to the stars. The technology isn’t ready—not now, not in a few years, and probably not in less than a century. But the journey begins now. The Planetary Society is, right now, creating this technology to fly a solar sail.

A sail powered by sunlight alone will not be able to reach the stars. Such a trip will require large solar-powered lasers that will beam concentrated light over interstellar distances. But solar sailing—flying on sunlight—will allow us to get around the solar system without fuel and to hover at important places in space, countering the effect of the Sun’s gravity. It will enable us to monitor the Sun and protect Earth, and then to open up the solar system and the way to other solar systems after that. These practical applications will happen much sooner than interstellar travel.

November 9, 2009: Planetary Society to Sail Again with LightSail
New Project Will Launch Three Separate Solar Sails Over Next Several Years

Washington, D.C. —"We're back!" said Louis Friedman, Executive Director of The Planetary Society. “With an even more ambitious solar sail program than our last venture." The Planetary Society today announced LightSail, a plan to sail a spacecraft on sunlight alone by the end of 2010. The new solar sail project, boosted by a one-million-dollar anonymous donation, was unveiled at an event on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C on the 75th anniversary of the birth of Planetary Society co-founder Carl Sagan, a long-time advocate of solar sailing. Read the full press release »

April 1, 2009: New Opportunities
The Planetary Society remains committed to flying the first solar sail.   Specifically, we aim to fly the first controlled flight of a spacecraft using light pressure to increase the orbit energy. At the beginning of this decade, we designed a mission to accomplish this goal. We launched Cosmos 1 in June 2005, but the Volna rocket that was to place the spacecraft in orbit failed, and we were never able to test our solar sail in flight. These days, The Planetary Society is working with colleagues at NASA and at the Russian Space Research Institute to put together a new solar sail mission. Read the full article »

June 23, 2008: New Developments on the Road to Cosmos 2
It is an encouraging time for the future of solar sailing. The Planetary Society and Cosmos Studios remain committed to flying the first flight with light. Our spacecraft, Cosmos 2, is a maneuverable solar sail that may be the precursor to a new mode of interplanetary travel, and could one day take us to the stars. In addition, through our cooperation with other organizations, we are continuing to encourage the development of solar sail technology. Read the full article »

June 15, 2007 : Making Light Work
Professional Pilot Magazine asked me to contribute a prediction about the future of flight for the next century.   Naturally, I wrote about solar sailing. Writing the article allowed me to step back a bit from our efforts to make this first solar sail flight happen and focus my thoughts on future applications for solar sailing -- uses within our solar system and beyond.

The promise of light sails enabling new missions of application and exploration is what motivates The Planetary Society and Cosmos Studios to reach for the stars.

-Louis D. Friedman

Read the full article »

October 20, 2006: Monitoring the Sun
"...The probable first application for this technology would be to monitor the Sun and give advance warning of dangerous or disruptive solar weather to those who operate satellites or power and communications grids. Charged particles streaming from the Sun can interact with the Earth's radiation belts and the ionosphere, disrupting radio and interfering with power transmissions. Orbiting satellites can be particularly vulnerable to radiation blasts from the Sun." Read the full update »

December 2, 2005: Getting Started

September 30, 2005: The End of Cosmos 1; The Beginning of the Next Chapter