How to Use solar sail in a Sentence

solar sail

noun
  • As its name implies, LightSail 2 is not the first solar sail.
    Robert Z. Pearlman, Scientific American, 23 July 2019
  • The amount of force the photons will apply to the solar sail is equal to about 9 micro-Newtons per square meter.
    Daniel Oberhaus, WIRED, 24 June 2019
  • The first solar sail prototype, a product of Japan's space agency, flew to space in 2010.
    Jackie Wattles, CNN, 31 July 2019
  • LightSail 2 was built to be the best-performing solar sail yet.
    Jackie Wattles, CNN, 31 July 2019
  • The satellite will be propelled there by a sweeping solar sail.
    WIRED, 20 Aug. 2022
  • Another is a science nerd's dream — a solar sail project that has been centuries in the making.
    Jackie Wattles, CNN, 24 June 2019
  • The Canadian Space Agency has suggested the use of a solar sail to do most of the work, rather than using thruster fuel.
    David Rothery, Discover Magazine, 29 Sep. 2017
  • This is the approach of LightSail 2—deploying the solar sail via CubeSat to prove it for large satellites.
    Bobak Ferdowsi, Popular Mechanics, 9 Aug. 2018
  • This spacecraft would be equipped with a solar sail, using the sun’s energy to make its journey.
    Amy Thompson, Smithsonian, 25 June 2019
  • With a solar sail, a spacecraft could keep going to the moon, to asteroids, to Jupiter — to anywhere the wind of light blows, using no fuel at all.
    NBC News, 3 June 2019
  • The solution, perhaps, will rely on the principle of solar sails.
    Ryan P. Smith, Smithsonian, 5 Apr. 2018
  • So what we're left with is primarily the challenge of building the material that will reflect light from the solar sail.
    John Timmer, Ars Technica, 7 May 2018
  • To be clear, solar sails are different from solar panels.
    Jackie Appel, Popular Mechanics, 6 May 2023
  • Another cubesat will travel out to the small asteroid 1991VG under the power of a solar sail.
    Sarah Lewin Frasier, Scientific American, 3 Feb. 2016
  • Some scientists have even proposed using a solar sail to send a lightweight probe to another star.
    Avery Thompson, Popular Mechanics, 6 Nov. 2018
  • After about a month, atmospheric drag will overpower the solar sail, ending the test.
    Robert Z. Pearlman, Scientific American, 23 July 2019
  • Thus, even for a highly-advanced civilization, the authors argue that such a solar sail probe would be a project that would have no constituency.
    Bruce Dorminey, Forbes, 25 May 2021
  • Later on, solar sails might also make new types of missions possible.
    Charlie Wood, Popular Science, 23 Jan. 2020
  • Swartzlander's solar sails would power CubeSats, the tiny satellites that have become en vogue due to their low cost and ability to be built with low cost.
    David Grossman, Popular Mechanics, 17 July 2018
  • Assuming everything goes as planned, the solar sail will raise LightSail 2 in its orbit about half a kilometer each day.
    Robert Z. Pearlman, Scientific American, 23 July 2019
  • Also in the clear: a solar sail demo targeting an asteroid.
    Arkansas Online, 28 Aug. 2022
  • Nye also foresees the possibility of using a solar sail to send materials to the Moon or Mars.
    Loren Grush, The Verge, 21 June 2019
  • This artificial object named 2020 SO was not designed to be a solar sail but had thin walls with a large surface-to-mass ratio for a different purpose.
    Avi Loeb, Scientific American, 22 June 2021
  • The middle-of-the-night rideshare features a deep space atomic clock, solar sail, clean and green rocket fuel, and even human ashes, including an astronaut's.
    Fox News, 25 June 2019
  • Each exerts a little force on the future, like the accumulating photons behind a solar sail.
    Gregory Barber, Wired, 10 Feb. 2022
  • Namely, a large sun shade will also act like a solar sail, catching solar radiation that will push the structure out of position at L1.
    Popular Science, 9 Aug. 2023
  • While solar sails are an old concept, humans are just now experimenting with the basic concept.
    Avery Thompson, Popular Mechanics, 6 Nov. 2018
  • The solar sail also counts as a technology demonstration for JPL: a possible propulsion system for flying a small probe not too far from the sun, without the risk of running out of fuel.
    WIRED, 20 Aug. 2022
  • On and around Earth, solar winds interfere with satellites, create auroras, and power solar sails in orbit.
    David Grossman, Popular Mechanics, 31 July 2019
  • And, based on how deeply those particles penetrate into other materials, there's a good chance that the hydrogen and helium will pass straight through the solar sail.
    John Timmer, Ars Technica, 7 May 2018

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'solar sail.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: