NASA to Put Largest Solar Sail into Space With the launch of
IKAROS, Japan was the first country to experiment successfully
with solar sail technology to be used in the interplanetary
space. Realizing the immense potential of solar sail technology
and its future application for a more economical power
solutions, NASA has undertaken to take a few steps further for
transforming space communication, deep space navigation and also
in-space propulsion capabilities with the help of three projects
to be implemented in tandem. Massive flares, during solar
activity often cause disturbances and the energy thus releases
can be used for increasing in-space propulsion capability. The
massive solar energy released during the process can be
harnessed using the solar sails and they would increase the
efficiency of the spacecraft and at the same time also reduce
the operating costs. For exploiting this huge potential and for
technology demonstration, NASA will soon be launching the
largest ever solar sail around 2015. The are