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A comment on Solar sail (1980).

Re:Solar sail (1980) by JoeDaDude on Sunday June 17, 2018 @10:39AM (#17332533)
IANAL, but I wonder if this invention has any significance to the Planetary Society's plan to launch a solar sail satellite in the near future, the LightSail [1]. If I understand the patent correctly, Google has patented (a) a means to steer a light powered craft, and (b) a means to produce solar sail. I understand the LightSail controls the sails by changing the orientation of the satellite with respect to the sun. I have no info on how the sail itself was fabricated. Do they owe Google some money?

[1] http://www.planetary.org/explore/projects/lightsail-solar-sa...

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Re:Solar sail (1980) by pluto9 on Sunday June 17, 2018 @10:53AM (#17332598)
The patent doesn't belong to Google. This is just Google's patent search site.
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Re:Solar sail (1980) by abecedarius on Sunday June 17, 2018 @11:04AM (#17332649)
It's a very different design because the Planetary Society's is built to be launched from Earth and then unfolded, presumably making it much heavier. If it does use ideas from this patent, it must've expired by now.
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Re:Solar sail (1980) by blakers95 on Sunday June 17, 2018 @10:58AM (#17332624)
This patent is from 1980--I don't think it's Google's.
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Re:Solar sail (1980) by zeth___ on Sunday June 17, 2018 @05:50PM (#17334527)
Patents expire after 26 years. Like sane copyright laws should.
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