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solar sail
noun
- Aerospace. a design concept for spacecraft propulsion consisting of a very thin, very large sheet of highly polished material that would be driven by the pressure of sunlight.
solar sail
noun
- a device that reflects light particles from the Sun, gaining momentum in the opposite direction to propel spacecraft forwards
solar sail
- A saillike device that is made of lightweight and highly reflective material and attached to a spacecraft to harness the radiation pressure of the solar wind and light for propulsion.
- Also called light sail
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Word History and Origins
Origin of solar sail1
First recorded in 1955–60
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Example Sentences
The spacecraft’s school bus-sized solar sail is made from a tough, Saran-wrap-like plastic that catches sunbeams as the probe leaves our planet behind.
From Popular-Science
At the University of Liverpool, we are exploring new manufacturing techniques for printing ultralight solar cells on to solar sails.
From Singularity Hub
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[ak-suh-lot-l ]
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