Re:LightSail 2 Spacecraft Successfully Demonstrates Flight b...
by msl on Thursday August 01, 2019 @03:14AM
(#20581679)
Using Earth's magnetic field for attitude control is already a thing [1].
Re:LightSail 2 Spacecraft Successfully Demonstrates Flight b...
by apkessl1 on Thursday August 01, 2019 @03:24AM
(#20581729)
In fact, that’s exactly what LightSail is using to control its attitude: http://www.planetary.org/blogs/jason-davis/2016/20160418-lig...
Niven/Pournelle had a cool idea in The Mote in God's Eye of charging your craft when traversing a magnetic field to change direction (not specific to sails, but another passive technique).