Solar Sails

Just as a quick fyi, the first real solar sail spacecraft is going to be launched in 15 hours by the Planetary Society -- me and a few friends are going to look for it from a ghetto farm near campus, so I'm crossing my fingers and hoping for non-cloudy weather!

PS: Howstuffworks.com has a great article on why solar sails are important:

A rocketless spacecraft powered by a solar sail would begin its journey at a slow but steady pace, gradually picking up speed as the sun continues to exert force upon it . . . As it continues to be pushed by sunlight, the solar sail-propelled vehicle will build up speeds that rocket powered vehicles would never be able to achieve. Such a vehicle would eventually travel at about 56 mi/sec (90 km/sec), which would be more than 200,000 mph (324,000 kph). . . . By adding a laser or magnetic beam transmitter, NASA said it could push speeds to 18,600 mi/sec (30,000 km/sec), which is one-tenth the speed of light. At those speeds, interstellar travel would be an almost certainty.

* PSA End ^_^ *