We will as a civilization be sailing through space like we once sailed the oceans to find new lands? The Planetary Society hopes so. This non-for profit group has been funded solely by citizens and is planning to send two missions into space in the coming months. In May 2015 the company will be sending up its first test satellite in order to test the operational systems of their space sail or LightSail as they call it. Then in 2016 the company will send the finalized rocket up out of Earth's orbit and find out if the idea of a space sail is effective. But how does a space sail work? There is no wind in space so what can push it and the craft it's attached to forward? The answer, tiny light energy particles called protons. When the protons hit the surface of the sail they transfer their momentum to the sail and cause it to accelerate forward. These particles travel extremely fast, the speed of light, but have very little mass. This gives them very little momentum but over a period of time the momentum would build as the space craft traveled causing an eventual acceleration that would get very fast. This way of producing acceleration for a spacecraft would be very cost effective because it provides a limitless source of power to push the craft forward unlike chemical or gas rockets.
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