A research team led by scientists from the Technical University of Dresden in Germany has come to the conclusion that solar sails can be used to travel to Mars and interstellar space, which could significantly reduce the time and fuel required for such missions.

To find the findings, which were accepted for publication in the journal Acta Astronautica, the researchers conducted simulations to show how fast an aerographite solar sail with a payload of up to one kilogram could run. Aerographite is a material made up of a porous bonded network of carbon at the nanoscale, and is one of the lightest materials ever made.

The researchers found that a sail like this can transport payload to planets such as Mars in just about 26 days (currently the travel time to Mars ranges between 7 to 9 months), which saves a lot of energy and time, especially as some countries in the future travel to Mars, and perhaps build stations on it in the distant future.

Solar sails can travel in space without fuel, relying solely on photons of light propulsion (NASA)

What solar sails?

Solar sails are spacecraft with a large reflective sail up to tens of meters wide that can travel in space without fuel, depending solely on the propulsion of photons of light.

Light is made up of particles called photons, as they travel through space, these photons have momentum that can push a solar sail with a shiny, mirror-like surface, where photons bounce off the sail, giving it a small boost, and as the sail continues to be hit with photons, it becomes faster with time.

It's exactly like the idea of a sailboat, where air particles hit the canvas sails and push the boat forward. In the case of solar sails, scientists use tiny lasers fired from Earth or a satellite, for example, to guide the sail wherever scientists want, or these sails can rely on sunlight.

The technology has a significant advantage, as sunlight can continuously propel the sail, accelerating the spacecraft throughout its journey and meaning that spacecraft operating in this way can reach speeds that are almost impossible for rockets to achieve.

Planetary travel

According to the study, it is possible to use a sail that relies on the energy of the sun, propelled into space with a normal rocket, and then launched to Mars when the red planet is on the opposite side of the sun relative to the spacecraft, and the researchers suggest that the same is happening on all planets, where this sail can deliver small payloads throughout the solar system.

In particular, researchers have been interested in using low-density aerography, which reduces the weight of the sail itself and makes it easier to move thanks to sunlight.

This is not the first time that scientists have proposed space travel through this type of sail, as a team of NASA scientists, in a 2015 report, proposed a similar method in which solar sails could reach Mars in just 3 days, but with very small payloads.

The Ikarus mission, launched in 2010 by the Japanese Space Agency, was the first practical solar-propelled glider, and in 2015 scientists observed that it was still operating without any failures, suggesting it could be used for long-term interplanetary travel.

In particular, the technology is thought to be effective for flights within the indoor solar system, where it can deliver payloads, return to Earth for subsequent flights, and routinely act as an interplanetary shuttle.