The European Space Agency Has Made A Snap-Proof Super-Thin Space Tether
Snap-Proof ESAAw, snap! Electric solar sails use long metal tethers that conduct electricity and interact with solar wind ions and propel a spacecraft. Invented in 2006, the technology could allow us to sail through space cheaper and faster than ever before: One day, the European Union's ESAIL project could take us to Pluto in as little as five years. But the technology is still working out some kinks. About half of all orbital tether tests have either failed to deploy or snapped under the impact of micrometeoroids, according to the European Space Agency. But now the agency is saying they've made an unsnappable tether for a solar sail, just in time for the April launch of ESTCube-1, Estonia's first satellite. At only about half the width of a human hair, the tether is made of several aluminum wires interwoven so that even if one is cut, an electric charge can...