Setting Sail in Space

Once you have people and cargo in orbit nanotechnology can be used to reduce the rocket fuel needed to travel to the moon or planets. Just as sailboats are propelled by wind while on the seas, spaceships can be propelled by light from the sun reflected off of solar sails while travelling through space. That means that the only fuel required would be during liftoff, docking, or landing.

However solar sails will have to be very large, spreading for kilometers, and very thin to keep their weight low. That’s where nanotechnology enters the picture. Researchers at the University of Texas have used carbon nanotubes to make thin, lightweight sheets that may replace the polymer sheets that have been experimented with to date. While there are details still to be worked out (such as how to unfurl a thin, fragile sail in orbit, along with the continual struggle to reduce weight) this method has great potential for reducing the amount of fuel needed to travel between planets