Do you think this solar sail will be used to take people to other worlds?

Question

Like during the time of Columbus, sails were used to take ships across the oceans to new worlds. Will this space sail also take future explorers to worlds beyond the Earth?

See the sail at
http://macrocosm-magbook.blogspot.com/

Answer 1

You'd get as far as outside the solar system where the solar wind meets interstellar space in a shockwave. Then you'd have no more propulsion but you could carry on drifting.

Answer 2

its an idea that has been around for ages. I myself would like to see it work but a solar sail would take too long to get anywhere. i'm not saying i know everything about such a project but if it takes month or years for a satellite to reach mars or Jupiter how long would it take for a solar sail to reach that distance?

Answer 3

a solar sail is a good idea for a satellite but for humans it would be too slow and the sail would have to be huge, plus the bikini deck would be in vacum haha

Answer 4

For moving things around in the solar system they would work great, but for exploration and passenger travel, they would be too slow. The journey would be too long and the provisions needed for long duration space flight would be too impractical. They could easily be made the solar system's cargo delivery service.

Answer 5

there a lot of sand in outer space and likely to damaged
this type of sail
is still best to researched on rocket propulsion or hibernation
chamber if we try the sail

Answer 6

Probably not. You have to be near a star for it to work. Once it got to just Neptune, it would have 1/900 the thrust that it would have next to the earth....PLUS the only direction you can travel is directly away from your light source.