The first ever working solar sail was created by the Dolgoprudny Design Bureau of Automation together with the Energia Corporation.
The thinnest film was wound on eight coils, which were unwound by a drum.
When rotating due to centrifugal force, the film itself was pulled out of the coils.
The diameter of the sail was 20 meters, by cosmic standards - a grain of sand, but the reflected light turned into a sunbeam several kilometers in size.
The beam ran across Europe and the western part of Russia at a speed of 8 km/s.
Developer Nadezhda Tatarnikova and senior lecturer of the Tauride National University Gennady Kozik talk about the "Banner-2" experiment.
Calendar: 02.19.2018