Solar sails could help spaceships glide through the stars

Solar sails that allow spacecraft to glide along light waves akin to a boat in the wind are set to be the subject of new trials by two 4 startups, following in the footsteps of space industry giants like NASA.

NanoAvionics has teamed up with French firm Gama to equip nanosatellites with solar sails and fly them in low-Earth orbit - technology that could make space travel both cheaper and safer as the sector stands on the verge of commercialisation.

Gama recently secured secured €2 million in funding to help "revolutionise" transport in space.

Read more: The French startup aiming to "revolutionise" space travel

Primarily aimed at lower-budget companies without the capital needed for traditional propulsion systems, the system could allow space firms to travel long distances on a budget and without the need for large fuel reserves.

As an aside, many spacecraft currently travel using fossil fuels, meaning this type of travel is greener.

In essence, the sails work similarly as they do on a ship out at sea. Radiation from solar winds exerts a force on the sails, which propels the ship forward.

Missions for small satellites with solar sail technology could include gathering data about Neptune's atmosphere or Uranus' magnetosphere, performing low-cost asteroid reconnaissance missions, carrying cargo to the Moon or Mars, sending rovers to Titan or Venus, and helping to remove space debris.

As of writing, the nanosatellites used by NanoAvionics are roughly the size of a shoebox, but solar sails offer the possibility of significant scale-ups.

In days gone by, sails played a vital role in propelling ships and helping them glide along the waves. Those days may be behind us, but some have taken the concepts of early seafaring and have attempted to apply them to space travel.

Currently, travelling through space is both bulky and expensive. While humanity may be on the verge of commercial space travel, having come a long way in recent years following seemingly years of dormancy, hitches will need to be ironed out before the final frontier will be more accessible.

Solar sails as a concept have existed since the 1970s, but the last decade has seen significant developments in this field. NASA has been running field tests for solar sails since at least 2011. The first spacecraft to use this technology was the IKAROS craft, launched by Japan's space industry in 2010.

Gama Space CEO Louis de Gouyon Matignon said the sales can "greatly advance" the possibilities of deep-space travel.

Due to their experience in conducting pilots in low-Earth orbit, primarily through satellites, as well as its previous forays in solar sail missions, "NanoAvionics is the ideal partner for this mission", he added.

"With sunlight being free and unlimited, solar sail-propelled spacecraft could travel greater distances without requiring large amounts of stored fuel."

Read more: Japan to demonstrate space solar power by 2025

As stated, this is not NanoAvionics' first trial with solar sails. Back in 2020, NASA developed solar sails for one of the firm's satellites to test the feasibility of them transporting a payload in orbit.

The sails used in the trial clocked in at around 70 square metres (800 square feet).

“While the payloads are similar in nature, NASA’s ACS3 and Gama’s Alpha are two very different satellites, with different customisation requirements. Being able to integrate solar sails, a new promising spacecraft propulsion method, into our nano- and microsatellites opens an entirely new market for us, way beyond the mission limits of low Earth orbit.

“Over the years, NanoAvionics' engineering team has faced and solved many technical challenges while matching our customers’ mission requirements and integrating different payloads, instruments and novel propulsion systems to our satellite busses," NanoAvionics co-founder and CEO Vytenis Buzas said.

"It allowed our engineers to greatly develop and advance NanoAvionics’ technology. Of course, the modularity of NanoAvionics versatile buses and components are a major advantage for successful integration.

"Based on these prior experiences, we are able to transfer a lot of know-how not only to the Gama’s Alpha satellite but to every future satellite mission.”

Gama claims that solar sails could forever change space travel and enable speeds never reached before" to explore the Solar System and beyond".

Back in April Industry Europe reported that the French startup was planning to launch a mission to Venus using crafts propelled by its solar sails.

NanoAvionics, on the other hand, has used its microsatellites for a number of tasks. Chief among them is what it claims to be the first major biodiversity project performed from space.

Read more: How a microsatellite could make conservation profitable

A satellite has been tasked with mapping the equivalent of 51 billion hectares of the Earth's surface - enough to cover the globe several times over - to monitor forests and inspire conservation efforts. 

This type of tech could prove invaluable for mitigating deforestation and habitat destruction. Aerospace technology is rapidly seeing use in agriculture for conservation, to monitor crops, fields and animals.

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