Artist's impression of a solar sail. Photo: Michael Carroll/The Planetary Society.

The Planetary Society and Cosmos Studios are ready to test the first solar sail ever deployed in space later this year. Solar sails are seen by many space observers as the "wave of the future" that will revolutionize space flight as spacecraft travel beyond the solar system.

"This could be a pivotal moment for space exploration," said Louis Friedman, the head of the Planetary Society and the Cosmos 1 project. "Solar sailing is a grand adventure as well as an important leap in technological innovation."

Two flights of the Cosmos 1 solar sail design are scheduled to launch this year, with one attempting an orbital flight late this year in the October through December timeframe. Another test flight will launch on a suborbital trajectory in April.

Both flights will fly aboard a Russian Volna rocket -- a converted former ballistic missile -- that will originate from a Russian submarine floating in the depths of the Barents Sea.

The suborbital flight in April will feature the deployment of two solar sail blades to test deployment techniques. An inflatable re-entry shield will be used to return film from cameras aboard the sail after the half-hour flight ends with a landing on the Kamchatka peninsula.

The primary orbital flight this fall will feature a full solar sail assembly of eight blades that make up an area of around 600 square meters. The structure is composed mainly of aluminized mylar.

The solar sails are being developed and built by the Babakin Space Center.

Artist's conception of the sub-launched rocket. Photo: Michael Carroll/The Planetary Society.

The deployment sequence is executed by the use of inflatable tubes which force the material out of its launch configuration into its orbital form. Once the blades are locked into position, they can be turned in various directions to allow the sunlight to strike the sails at different angles. This is how the orbiting platform will control its orientation, or attitude, in space.

After it is fully deployed, the demonstrator should be easily viewed form Earth while in its 850-kilometer high orbit. In fact, the Planetary Society says that its magnitude could as low (bright) as that of the full moon.

Cameras will also be positioned on the orbital version of the Cosmos 1 to capture images of the craft to be sent back to Earth.

Planetary Society officials vaunt the mission as being the first private mission to demonstrate space technology and the first mission controlled by a private space interest organization. Cosmos 1 will also be the first solar sail to ever be tested in space.

Solar sails work by utilizing light pressure to propel itself and to change its attitude. Studies have shown that the Sun's useful light energy for solar sails dissipates by the time it reaches the orbit of Jupiter, so future missions would have to rely on laser light for propulsion after they pass that point.

"This is a Kitty Hawk moment to us. We feel as if we've been given the chance to outfit the Wright Brothers' Bicycle Shop," said Cosmos Studios CEO Ann Druyan, driving home the significance of the flight.