14 DAY TRIAL // Bill Nye the Science Guy has made a brilliant career in television, there's no denying it. Still, this doesn't mean that he spends all of his working hours in front of a camera. He's also the CEO of US non-governmental, non-profit organization The Planetary Society.
As part of a new project, this organization now wants to fly an experimental satellite powered solely by solar energy into space. The project, dubbed LightSail, aims to prove the viability of solar propulsion when it comes to exploring deep space.
Why solar propulsion and not regular fuel?
It was late astronomer Carl Sagan who first proposed the idea of spacecraft running not on regular fuel but propelled by the sun instead some 40 years ago.
The perks of solar propulsion: having spacecraft pushed around by photons would make it both easier and cheaper to launch satellites and other vehicles designed to explore our Solar System, maybe even sneak a peek beyond it.
“Solar sail spacecraft capture light momentum with large, lightweight mirrored surfaces - sails. As light reflects off a sail, most of its momentum is transferred, pushing on the sail.”
“The resulting acceleration is small, but continuous. Unlike chemical rockets that provide short bursts of thrust, solar sails thrust continuously and can reach higher speeds over time,” The Planetary Society explains.
Introducing project LightSail
To put solar propulsion to the test, The Planetary Society wants to launch two spacecraft designed to move through space not powered by fuel but by having photons hit their 32-square-meter (344-square-feet) reflective sails.
The first of these spacecraft, essentially a prototype, should take to the skies sometime in this year's May and move in low-Earth orbit, at an altitude of 447 miles (720 kilometers), for about 30 days. The other will follow in 2016, the non-governmental organization hopes.
The thing is that, being a non-governmental, non-profit organization, The Planetary Society doesn't have enough money to get project LightSail off the ground all on its own. Hence, the space enthusiasts turned to Kickstarter for help.
When the fundraising campaign was launched a couple of days back, Bill Nye hoped to raise $200,000 (€175,000). Well, the project has so far landed well over $400,000 (€350,000). Apparently, a whole lot of people on the Internet are fans of space exploration.
For now, it's unclear when exactly the prototype solar-power spacecraft will take off later this month. Then again, it probably won't be long until a launch date is set, so keep an eye on this page for updates.