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But, it turns out, a solar sail need not always be particularly large to be useful.
ECONOMIST: Rockets are not the only way to travel through outer space
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Current plans call for the probe to unfurl a solar sail 400 metres across shortly after launch.
ECONOMIST: Rockets are not the only way to travel through outer space
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It is the picture that confirms Japan's Ikaros solar sail is fully extended and ready for the next part of its mission.
BBC: Mini-camera pictures Japan's Ikaros solar sail
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As a result Geostorms, which could be launched as soon as 2005, has a good chance of being the first spacecraft to fly using a solar sail.
ECONOMIST: Rockets are not the only way to travel through outer space
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Dr Lappas's satellite-removal system employs a solar sail.
ECONOMIST: A satellite that tidies up after itself
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The idea of using a magnetic field as a solar sail was first suggested a few years ago, but it soon became apparent that creating a field strong enough to be useful would require exotic superconducting materials that, unfortunately, do not exist.
ECONOMIST: Rockets are not the only way to travel through outer space
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This week we saw new horizons dawn for green transportation as NASA's Nanosail-D became the first solar sail spacecraft to orbit the earth and President Obama issued a call for one million electric vehicles in his State of the Union Address.
ENGADGET: Inhabitat's Week in Green: the power plant you can ski, and NASA's orbiting Nanosail-D
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Such a big sail would catch a lot of solar wind.
ECONOMIST: Rockets are not the only way to travel through outer space
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Powered by wind, solar panels, gel batteries and a foot crank, Yrvind Ten will set sail from Ireland in a 48, 000 kilometer return journey around the globe.
CNN: November 29, 2012 -- Updated 0332 GMT (1132 HKT)