Space engineers are testing an over 65-foot (20-meter) solar sail and boom system. The large sail has been developed by L’Garde Inc. of Tustin, California. In order for the sail to stretch out, it is being unfurled at the NASA Glenn Research Center's Plum Brook facility in Sandusky, Ohio.

Red and blue lights help illuminate the four triangular sail quadrants as they lie outstretched in Plum Brook's Space Power Facility - the world's largest space environment simulation chamber.

The sail material is supported by a series of inflatable booms that become rigid in the space environment. The system is extended via remote control from a central stowage container about the size of a suitcase. The deployment, part of a series of tests that began in June, is a critical milestone in the development of solar sail propulsion technology that could lead to more ambitious inner Solar System robotic exploration.

--Leonard David

Credit: NASA