Science

ACS3

Solar Sail Propulsion Technology Demonstrator · NASA

ACS3 (Advanced Composite Solar Sail System), a NASA technology demonstration satellite testing a new lightweight, composite boom structure for deploying solar sails far larger than any material previously used could support — a sail roughly the size of a boxing ring, unfurled from a spacecraft smaller than a microwave oven, testing propulsion technology that uses nothing but sunlight itself for future deep-space missions that never need to carry propellant at all.