This is an artist's illustration of the spacecraft NanoSail D in orbit around Earth. The craft recently unfurled its key feature: the 10 square meter reflective "solar sail." The idea of a solar sail is to propel a spacecraft using only the small but ever-present force provided by the solar wind. NanoSail D was NASA's first test of this propulsion system, which was first suggested 400 years ago by Johannes Kepler after he observed comet tails caused by the solar wind. In the future, this system may become an efficient way to accelerate spacecraft on missions within the solar system. Since the sail is so reflective, NanoSail D will be visible in the sky to the naked eye on several occasions before it returns to Earth around April or May.
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