Solar Sails: The Future of Space Travel
Working as if they were engineers, students design and construct model solar sails made of aluminum foil to move cardboard tube satellites through “space” on a string. Working in teams, they follow the engineering design thinking steps—ask, research, imagine, plan, create, test, improve—to design and test small-scale solar sails for satellites and space probes. During the process, learn about Newton’s laws of motion and the transfer of energy from wave energy to mechanical energy. A student activity worksheet is provided.
Figure 1. A solar sail.Copyright Josh Spradling, The Planetary Society, Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 3.0 Unported License http://sail.planetary.org/gallery/lightsail.html https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/
Aerospace and mechanical engineers design spacecraft, satellites and rockets to travel into space. While rockets are the most common method of space propulsion, their weight and fuel capacity make them inefficient for long-range space travel. Thus, to enable exploration into far and unknown regions of space, engineers are challenged to create new propulsion methods that can more effectively move satellites and space probes over long distances. One emerging technology—the solar sail—transfers wave energy from light into mechanical energy to enable prolonged propulsion at high speeds for small satellites. In this activity, students experience the stages of the engineering design process as they design and test model solar sails to support deep space exploration goals.
After this activity, students should be able to:
- Explain the purpose and use of solar sails for satellite propulsion.
- Explain that solar sails transfer wave energy from light into mechanical energy for satellite motion.
- Discuss important considerations for solar sail design.
- Explain Newton’s three laws of motion.
- Use and describe the steps of the engineering design process.