HAMPTON, Va. — Inside a large building at NASA's Langley Research Center Tuesday afternoon, a model of NASA’s latest solar sail was stretched out on the floor on display.
You might say it looks like a giant tin foil kite.
This new, larger sail was developed in part at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, and it could help revolutionize space travel.
“You could use this to carry a science instrument," Assembly, Integration, and Test Lead Greg Dean said.
Scientists say one of the big problems with sending things to space is how much fuel it takes to even get it into orbit. Then, if you want to go anywhere, you need even more fuel.
But not with this solar sail.
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The real solar sail is about 860 square feet and comes at a cost of around $20 million.
It all folds up into a small box about the size of a microwave that a company will launch into space from New Zealand soon.
As of Tuesday, NASA said the launch could happen as early as April 23.
“The primary objective is just to demonstrate that we can deploy this thing," Chief Engineer Dr. Jay Warren said.
So here's how it works: instead of having a rocket engine and fuel, this solar sail deploys, using energy from the sun to push it around in space, much like wind hitting a ship's sails.
"The backbone of this whole technology are these composite booms," Warren said, holding a sample of tubing.
He described the booms as high-strength and being rollable and collapsable.
"The sail membranes themselves, they're two and a half microns thick," Warren explained. "So they're thinner than a human hair."
If all goes well, these sails could be used for a variety of things and could lead to even bigger sails.
“If you put one of these at the earth-sun Lagrange Point, you could have an advanced detection system to let you know a solar storm is happening and you need to shut down your satellites to protect them," Dean said.
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The booms that make up the frame of the sail could even be used to build structures on the moon.
“We’re really, really interested in the idea of using them for towers for communications," Dr. Matt Chamberlain said.
Chamberlain is the head of the structural dynamics branch at NASA's Langley Research Center.
On a table inside the building where the model was displayed, pieces of the material the sails are made out of were able to be held. Very lightweight, it floats through the air.
This project was about five years in the making and involved both the Langley Research Center in Hampton and NASA’s Ames Research Center in California.
Once the mission is over, the sail will fall back to earth and burn up as it re-enters the atmosphere.
“After five years, through COVID, when we were shutdown, and then when we started to come back finally to slowly work on this, it is a little surreal to finally see it going up into space," said Chamberlain.
This solar sail mission is expected to last six to nine months.
