On Fri, 15 Oct 2004, David Minkler wrote:

> I'm not a sailor, so I can't say that I know but ...
>
> Isn't this a possibility in a sailboat only because you have the ability to 
> take advantage of the boats motion through the water to steer it somewhat 
> into the wind?  With no water to work against, I can't see how you could get 
> inbound velocity from the outbound solar wind alone.  Help me understand if 
> I'm wrong.

The wing is released from the ship and starts drifting away from the sun, 
slowly, pushed by its radiation pressure. But it's a mirror so it can 
reverse the pressure vector and if aimed right this reversed and *focused* 
beam can push the ship *towards* the sun. This is all theory, nobody has 
done this yet.

Peter
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