Bill Nye Explains the Science Behind Solar Sails | WIRED

On June 25, the Planetary Society's LightSail 2 hitched a ride into orbit on board SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket. The solar sail is propelled only by sunlight, and its technology holds promise for early detection of major events in space, as well as travel across vast distances. To find out more, WIRED's Daniel Oberhaus spoke with Planetary Society CEO, Bill Nye.




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[edwardkasimir]

I like how at 06:22 when he's talking about how this complicated machine works, they actually show how it works, but just for a brief 4 seconds.

[endersplitt]

Aliens: What is that shiny thing coming at us?
Humans: Hello we are humans and this is our way to say hello *boom*

[jmtx.]

Would've been a catastrophic catastrophe, cause Bill sez so. :-)

[IamINERT]

This could in theory reach 10% of light speed.
Could reach our closest star in about 40 years

[CraigUntlNytTym]

I have never heard the term "momentum wheel"

[BenjiSun]

as a supporter of the first cubesat and will continue to support the endeavours of TPS, i'm so glad to see how far this has gone and people realizing how big of a change something so small can establish in our culture that's generally used to seeing astronaut-centric spaceflight.

[stevensteven]

World : CM, M, KM

USA: loaf of bread, school bus

[VOLAIRE]

“Sailing on sunlight”

Absolutely revolutionary 👌

[superbuffguy]

Is it bigger than a bread box?

No.

[aozora]

My first thought when i saw him




Bill Nye: "the planet's on F*CKING FIRE!"

[ursoocheeryy]

Our science teacher still let us watch bill nye before he talk more about the lesson.

[joannot]

What about focusing sun light with arrays of giant curved reflecting sheets in space for this light sail propulsion system instead of power hungry lasers?

[addiction]

7:09
Bill: the problem with humans is they’re heavy.
Me: 🥺

[janbelcher]

For someone with a vague scientific background, he's still pretty well versed on how it works which is great!

[melvinch]

Clearly inspired by Count Dooku's Solar Sailer.

[OnlyDoniaUKnow]

Nye is a natural in front of the camera.

Your host? Kinda boring. Sorry, kid.

[elizabeth-khjl]

it’s amazing that bill nye has and still is making a difference! his passion for science is inspiring.

[Montie-Adkins]

There are some sail ideas based on absorbing rather than reflecting. I would like to know if you could essentially make a light solar sail into a solar power array and have it use that energy collected to power an ion thruster to get greater acceleration.

[ericpatton]

Catastrophic catastrophe, well they dont call him Bill Nye the English guy I guess

[heydaddy]

Omg i love bill he helped me out in science class. Now science is my favorite subject