He took off the
light sails, shortened right down to storm canvas, spread life lines, and waited for the wind.
Of their eight tentacles, six were elongated, and stretched out floating on the water, whilst the other two, rolled up flat, were spread to the wing like a
light sail. I saw their spiral-shaped and fluted shells, which Cuvier justly compares to an elegant skiff.
We rigged up a single short mast and
light sail, fastened planking down over the ballast to form a deck, worked her out into midstream with a couple of sweeps, and dropped our primitive stone anchor to await the turn of the tide that would bear us out to sea.
Direct the beam onto highly reflective
light sails attached to spacecraft weighing less than a gram and already in orbit.
Rather than being designed for communication, they would more likely be used to propel giant space ships powered by
light sails.
Graduate students from the Netherlands' Delft Technical University will use microgravity in the ZARM drop tower in Bremen, Germany to test graphene for
light sails. By shining laser light on suspended graphene-membranes from Graphene Flagship partner Graphenea, the experiment will test how much thrust can be generated, which could lead to a new way of propelling satellites in space using light from lasers or the sun.