Cosmic sails: from Arthur Clarke's fantasies to real technologies

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It turns out that some spacecraft, like ships at sea, are indeed propelled by sails. In the Hall of Inventions at the National Centre RUSSIA, visitors can take a closer look at the solar cosmic sail, which was deployed for the first time in history in 1993 on the Russian spacecraft "Progress M-15."

The history of the solar sail, a model of which is displayed at the National Centre, dates back to 1963. Its principle of operation was described by Arthur Clarke in his short story "The Wind from the Sun." "The autopilot <...> held the solar sail perfectly aligned with the sun. Although this sheet of plastic, two square miles in area, had probably been pierced by hundreds of micrometeoroids, the tiny punctures did not diminish its thrust," wrote the English science fiction writer and futurist.

The "scientific foundation" for Clarke's literary fantasies was laid in 1900 by Russian physicist Pyotr Lebedev: he was the one to first measure the pressure of sunlight that same year.

The first-ever deployment of a solar sail in space took place on February 24, 1993, aboard the Russian spacecraft "Progress M-15." It was only on May 21, 2010 — 47 years after the publication of "The Wind from the Sun" — that the Japanese space agency launched the H-IIA rocket carrying the first cosmic sail spacecraft, the IKAROS probe.

These and other fascinating stories about the development of global science and technology in "collaboration" with literature are shared by professional guides at the National Centre RUSSIA. Free tours depart every 15 minutes from the main information desk.