History Main / SolarSail

So you've got your nice big spaceship, but you have one big problem - fuel. It's heavy and runs out real quick.

* Jim Hawkings' sailboard and the RLS Legacy from ''Disney/TreasurePlanet'' are referred to as solar sails, but they have little in common with actual solar sails.

Unlike a sailing ship at the waters, however, a solar sail cannot "tack" into the solar wind. Tacking requires a keel submerged in a medium with much greater drag (e.g. water), which a solar sailing vessel lacks.[[note]]It ''is'' possible to lower one's orbit using a solar sail, by angling the sail to deflect the sun's rays forwards, decelerating the spacecraft and causing it to fall in closer to the sun; traditional watercraft-style tacking is out, however.[[/note]]

Unlike a sailing ship at the waters, however, a solar sail cannot "tack" into the solar wind. Tacking requires a keel submerged in a medium with much greater drag (e.g. water), which a solar sailing vessel lacks.

** Update to this - The Planetary Society launched their Light-Sail probe successfully launched in May 2015 and although battling problems and gaps in communication (space is hard), it completed the mission successfully and entered the Earth's atmosphere in June 2015 (presumably burning in it). LightSail 2 is supposed to launch 25th of June 2019.

* ''CentauriKnights'' uses beam-assisted magsail ships as the only means of travel between Alpha Centauri and the Sol system. They travel at a significant fraction of light speed, but the trip still takes seven years.
* ''TheJovianChronicles'' have solar sail and mag-sail craft as the primary bulk cargo carriers. The trade fleets operate from Mercury, because its central location next to the sun makes it a convenient stopping point. Solar sails are used in the inner systems, but only magsails are practical to reach the Jovian colonies and the asteroid belt. Past that, the solar wind is so diffuse that the Jupiter to Saturn trade relies on fusion-powered ships - fortunately there are big sources of hydrogen at both ends of that run.

* A derelict alien-built solar sail vessel appears in ''Decency'' by RobertReed. The sail is wider than the Moon, and is punctured from impacts with stray atoms of dust in interstellar space. When it impacts with the Earth, the impact itself is harmless due to the sail being so fragile.

* Jim Hawkings' sailboard and the RLS Legacy from ''Disney/TreasurePlanet''.

* ‘’Webcomic/SchlockMercenary’’:
** The Gatekeepers use “solar sail material” to make Dyson Spheres, their word for which translates to “this was expensive to build.”
** In one arc the crew encounter a small STL starship with a solar sail that “you could giftwrap planets with”.

* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' has Captain Sisko repair a derelict Bajoran spacecraft with solar sails. He and his son decide to go on a voyage and accidentally end up in Cardassian space. Earlier in the episode shows a Cardassian and Bajoran arguing whether ancient [[AncientAstronauts Bajorans did make it to Cardassia.]]

* An optional technology in {{Traveller}}, but usually too slow to be worth it except for sport.

* Count Dooku in ''[[Film/AttackOfTheClones Star Wars: Episode II]]'' uses a ship equipped with a (tiny) solar sail to escape from a battle.

* In ''Film/{{Tron}}'', a simulated vehicle called a Solar Sailer is stolen by two of the movie's protagonists to make a hasty exit from the facility where it just happens to have been under construction. To avert the need for steering, a Solar Sailer's path follows the path of whatever data beam it rides on. A much larger version is used in ''Tron Legacy'' for bulk transport of abducted programs.

* Highly obscure MarvelComics character Starhawk had these built into his spandex super-suit, one set one his back and a matching set on his head. Which is impractical and unlikely, [[RuleOfCool but...]]

[[caption-width-right:350:This image depicts the [[UsefulNotes/{{JAXA}} Japanese]] IKAROS spacecraft, which used its solar sail to control attitude and rotation speed. Yes, this trope is TruthInTelevision.]]

* ''Robert L. Forward's'' ''Roche World'' series features solar sails heavily. They are used for cargo vessels in the solar system, and the interstellar ship sent to the Barnard system uses a solar sail propelled by a laser on Mercury.

* The Martians in "Last and First Men" by Olaf Stapledon, being creatures whose body is composed of trillions of nanoscopic (not microscopic) viruses that communicate on a central nervous system of radiation, are able to conform their bodies into thin solid sheets that can traverse interplanetary distances. This is how they reach an Earth inhabited by the Second Men to begin their crusade to 'liberate' terrestrial diamonds which they believe are being handled sacrilegiously by the planet's dominate species, which the Martians also mistakenly think are the humans' radio devices.

* Eldar ships in ''BattlefleetGothic'' use solar sails for propulsion.

* Count Dooku in ''[[AttackOfTheClones Star Wars: Episode II]]'' uses a ship equipped with a (tiny) solar sail to escape from a battle.

* In ''Tron'', a simulated vehicle called a Solar Sailer is stolen by two of the movie's protagonists to make a hasty exit from the facility where it just happens to have been under construction. To avert the need for steering, a Solar Sailer's path follows the path of whatever data beam it rides on. A much larger version is used in ''Tron Legacy'' for bulk transport of abducted programs.

Unlike a sailing ship, however, a solar sail cannot "tack" into the solar wind. Tacking requires a keel submerged in a medium with much greater drag (e.g. water), which a solar sailing vessel lacks.