Sailing to the stars is a matter of choosing the right wind.
A new way to cross the extraordinary distances of space using a lot of nothing and a touch of inspiration from seabirds has been proposed by researchers.
The spectrum of starlight from the Sun is a promising solution to space travel. Though small in impact, sheer numbers and high speeds are intriguing sources of power for building up the high speed needed to cross light years of emptiness in a short time.
Over the years, solar sail models have gone as far as being tested in the hostile environments of the Solar System.
The sail itself is one of the biggest drawbacks of solar sails. The solar sails have to stretch across the ground.
They need the right material and shape for every photon to move. They need to shed heat in a way that won't break.
Mass is added by all of these requirements. The fastest speeds we could achieve using our Sun's radiation would be less than 2% of the speed of light, meaning a trip to the nearest star would take a long time.
It would be much easier to sail to the stars without the sails.
Fortunately, another kind of gale blows from the solar surface, one made not of photon but a plasma of ion whipped into a frenzy by the snap and crackle of the Sun's magnetic fields.
The charged mass of the Sun's electrons and protons is more powerful than that of the photon.
Such particles would be a problem for typical sails, as they impart their charges on the material's surface, creating drag and changing the sail's shape.
As anyone who has ever tried pushing the poles of magnets together knows, an electric field can provide resistance without a large, solid surface.
It's farewell shiny material and hello superconductor. The Sun's charged wind can be mitigated by a cable just a few meters long.
The system would act like a magnetic parachute, one that is being dragged by a flow of particles moving at speeds close to 700 kilometers per second, or just under a quarter of a percent of the speed of light.
The albatross knows that the winds don't set the speed limits for flying high.
seabirds can pick up the energy of a wind by using what's known as dynamic soaring to gain speed before they return to their original trajectory.
Using a similar trick in the 'headwind' of the termination shock, a magnetic sail could surpass the solar wind's speeds, potentially bringing it within reach of solar sails based on radiation alone.
There are other forms of turbulence at the fringes of space that could provide a bigger boost to the technology.
It is possible to put cube-sat satellites around Jupiter in a few months.
There are a lot of ways we can take advantage of the currents that wash through the space.
The seabirds show us where we're going.
It was published in a journal.
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