The Finnish Meteorological Institute is currently working on the construction of what is called an electric sail, or ESAIL. It is supposed to the be the fastest man made device ever built. It is powered by solar radiation and requires no chemical propellant. The craft consists of thin metallic tethers around the space craft that stay charged at a high positive potential. The protons in the solar wind are of opposite charge and therefore force the sail away from the sun. It is estimated that after a year in space the sail could reach a speed of 19 miles per second.
If the project goes as planned this could revolutionize space travel as we know it. It is predicted that it would take 5 years to reach Pluto so any type of manned mission still seems a little unrealistic. Hopefully this will lead us into a direction of real long-distance space travel.
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