Can solar power be used to drive a spacecraft?
Question:
Answer:
Yes, we currently have low power ion drives that get their power from solar panels. The lastest is headed to the outer planets and will be the fastest spacecraft ever to date.
nopppp
Yes. Direct use of solar radiation to propel spacecraft has already been accomplished:
"Solar sails (also called light sails, especially when they use light sources other than the Sun) are a proposed form of spacecraft propulsion using large membrane mirrors. Radiation pressure is small and decreases by the square of the distance from the sun, but unlike rockets, solar sails require no fuel. Although the thrust is small, it continues as long as the sun shines and the sail is deployed.
Solar collectors, temperature-control panels and sun shades are occasionally used as expedient solar sails, to help ordinary spacecraft and satellites make minor corrections to their attitude and orbit without using fuel. This conserves fuel that would otherwise be used for maneuvering and attitude control. A few have even had small purpose-built solar sails for this use. For example, EADS Astrium built Eurostar E3000 geostationary communications satellites use solar sail panels attached to their solar cell arrays to off-load transverse angular momentum, thereby saving fuel (angular momentum is accumulated over time as the gyroscopic momentum wheels control the spacecraft's attitude - this excess momentum must be offloaded to prevent the wheels from overspin).
Some unmanned spacecraft (such as Pioneer 10) have substantially extended their service lives with this practice."
From Wikipedia, the free, online encyclopedia at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/solar_sails...
Hope this helps!
It's not impossible, but it would be like using a mosquito to power a car. The sun is so weak in the outer solar system it can't even power a radio.
Yes. It is possible because even though the spacecraft is in space there are no clouds to block the solar rays! Hope I helped!
yes
What seems to be missing from my informed colleagues list of examples is a simple one... a solar sail. Works just like a sailing ship, yet is powered by the cosmic winds. The idea here is that with the gentle push of the cosmic winds, you will get accelleration. Imagine how fast you can go with a 6 month constant accelleration... much faster than the shuttle!... just not sure how you get back.. =)
A space craft need no power once it is in space unless it requires tochange direction . Nothing needs any power for movement in space unless it is acted upon by some other power. solar power can be used so long as he space craft is exposed to the light of the sun.
Experiments are being conducted on ION drives which run on electricity. This can come from solar power. The big problem with using solar power as a source of energy, it is good only for local planetary hops as the rays get weaker the further away from the sun as you go.
More Questions & Answers...