solar sail
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.
Origin of solar sail
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Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use solar sail in a sentence
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.
The most high-flying aerospace innovations of 2021 | Charlie Wood and Rob Verger | December 2, 2021 | Popular-ScienceAt the University of Liverpool, we are exploring new manufacturing techniques for printing ultralight solar cells on to solar sails.
Solar Power Stations in Space Could Be the Answer to Our Energy Needs | Amanda Jane Hughes | November 27, 2020 | Singularity Hub
British Dictionary definitions for solar sail
a device that reflects light particles from the Sun, gaining momentum in the opposite direction to propel spacecraft forwards
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Scientific definitions for 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
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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