Since scientists at that time already had a very in-depth understanding of electromagnetism, they also deduced the magnitude of light pressure.

In 1924, Tsiolkovsky and his colleague Chandel jointly proposed the feasibility concept of a solar sail, describing the idea that humans could use the light pressure of the solar sail to provide interstellar flight in the future.

The principle of light pressure is very simple, it is the thrust generated by the use of photons hitting an object.

Perhaps most people think that this kind of thing is too exaggerated, because normal people will not feel hit by photons at all when they bask in the sun every day, because the area itself is too small, and the mass is relatively large, and many other factors are in it, so it is not so obvious.

However, as long as the area is large enough, it can be flown using light pressure.

First of all, because the power source of the solar sail comes from the sun, it does not need to carry fuel, according to Newton's second law, it can be known that this is very beneficial for the acceleration of the aircraft.

At the same time, the light pressure provided by the sun can also bring a very objective thrust.

According to scientists' calculations, if the area of the solar sail can reach 70,000 square meters, then the light pressure will produce a thrust of up to 0.34 tons.

Although this thrust is not very large, it can continue to provide power for a long time, so it is always in a state of acceleration.

If it is a long-distance interstellar voyage, even if you bring nuclear fusion, it is completely useless, because nuclear fusion is a working fluid engine and needs to carry a lot of fuel.

If it's an electric propulsion engine, it needs electricity, and if you want to fly long distances, the battery needs to be bigger accordingly.

If you don't need batteries and get a fusion generator directly to the ship, then you need a lot of fuel to maintain nuclear fusion, and if you want heavy nuclear fusion, you need a lot of stones.

So this will gradually increase the mass and weight of the spacecraft, resulting in similar problems as rocket launches on Earth.

When the volume is large, the thrust will be greater, but when the volume is larger, the mass and weight will also increase, and when you take it all together, the thrust will not be improved at all.

The same is true for substituting this into the spaceship, if the thrust of the spacecraft is insufficient, and if it does not provide continuous acceleration, I am afraid that it will be pulled back by the gravitational pull of the solar system before it flies out of the solar system.

Therefore, after the concept of solar sail was put forward at that time, it also aroused the thinking of many physicists and aerospace experts, because it is equivalent to a "non-working fluid" engine.

If the solar sail carries a probe of 500 kilograms, then with the help of light pressure, it can reach Mars in 200 days, which is basically exactly the same speed as it is now.

If the area of the solar sail reaches 3 square kilometers, then the thrust will reach 1.5 tons, and there is no problem in flying out of the solar system.

If it were an ordinary person, the scientist would probably be scolding his mother for saying this, because it sounds like nonsense.

It's just that there is nothing impossible at all, because space is a high vacuum environment, and even if the area is large, there is no air resistance. Three k

It's not like a fighter plane in the Earth's atmosphere, or a rocket or something, it's all about being aerodynamic.

However, there is no resistance in space, so it can be done strangely, even if it is a hedgehog ball, as long as the speed is enough, it can fly very fast.

And two hundred years ago, when the steam locomotive first came out, it is estimated that people at that time did not expect that horse-drawn carriages would be eliminated, nor did they think that the world is full of cars today.

Therefore, the development of technology will make everything that seems impossible possible, and even this kind of technology is the same.

Of course, if there is a scientist who now says that he can make Thanos's gauntlet, and can destroy half of the universe with a snap of his fingers, then this is not a scientist, but a magic stick.

Therefore, with the development of human science and technology, it is only a matter of time before a flying machine of this scale is built.

Of course, because the space of the current rocket is very limited, and it is impossible for the solar sail to be loaded into tens of thousands or even hundreds of square meters, if you want to launch the solar sail into space, you must fold it up and deploy it after liftoff.

After fully deploying in space, the solar sail will absorb the light pressure of the sun's rays to the maximum extent possible in a wide area, achieving continuous acceleration.

Of course, if you are too far away from the sun, the solar radiation received will also be reduced accordingly, so the theory at the time was to place the relevant engines behind the solar sail to provide further acceleration.

If the solar sail is large enough, it will only take five or even twenty years to fly from Earth to Pluto.

Because there is no resistance in space, only the gravitational attraction between the celestial bodies, and its increase in speed cannot be measured by the physical laws on the ground.

Therefore, whether it is long-distance navigation or ultra-long-distance navigation, solar sails are currently the most promising next-generation space power plant to help mankind achieve breakthroughs and break out of the solar system.

Today's scientists have also put into practice the possibilities of solar sails.

Amejian's Planetary Society is the world's largest non-profit space research team composed of renowned astronomer and popular science writer Carl Sagan.

They have long been committed to promoting the progress of human space exploration technology in various forms, so they are not lagging behind in the solar sail, and conducted the first solar sail test in 2015.

Later, in June 2019, their Lightsail 2 was launched, and on July 23, the polyester canvas was successfully deployed.

Due to financial and technical constraints, their solar sails are about 5 meters long, or 25 square meters, but their bare sails are less than one-tenth the thickness of a human hair.

On July 31, they used the power converted from the light pressure received by the light-sail 2 to successfully raise the orbit of the light-sail 2 by 1.25 miles, which was not a huge change, but it proved that the solar sail was viable.

Later, the research team in China also began to conduct relevant research on solar sails, and had previously launched the research of "Tianfan No. 1" of the Shenyang Institute of Automation, which was reported in the news.

Both domestic and foreign light sails are made of polyimide resin, because this material can be very thin, with a thickness of only 7.5 microns, which is equivalent to about one-tenth of the diameter of a hair.