New York, July 20 – 22, 2010

James Clerk Maxwell The fact that electromagnetic radiation exerts a pressure upon any surface exposed to it was predicted theoretically by Scottish theoretical physicist and mathematician James Clerk Maxwell in The main results of the theory of electromagnetic waves was presented to the Royal Society on December 8, 1864 and published in 1865 and then in his famous A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism. According to Maxwell's electromagnetic theory, electromagnetic waves carry the energy and linear momentum and the radiation pressure exerted on the surface of satellite or solar sail due to momentum transport by photons is given by S is the magnitude of the Poynting vector and Ls is the solar luminosity Today after 140 years we are celebrating the success of Maxwell’s prediction ! Roman Kezerashvili, Opening,July 20, 2010

Pyotr Lebedev Lebedev was the first who measured the pressure of light on a solid body during The discovery was announced at the World Physics Congress in Paris in 1900, and became the first quantitative confirmation of Maxwell's theory of electromagnetism. Later in 1901 Nichols and Hull from Dartmouth College also proved experimentally the existence of the pressure of light. The preliminary data was achieved as early as 1901 and the findings were first presented at the Denver meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Roman Kezerashvili, Opening, July 20, 2010

Yakov Perelman Yakov Perelman in 1915 in his book Interplanetary Journeys came up with the idea to use the solar radiation pressure for the propulsion of a spacecraft. However, he concluded that light pressure is too small to overcome gravity but did not consider using sails to increase the force. The father of Soviet astronautics Tsiolkovsky always thought highly of the talent and creative genius of Perelman and he wrote the preface for a new 1923 edition Perelman's Interplanetary Journeys. Roman Kezerashvili, Opening, July 20, 2010

Konstantin Tsiolkovsky Fridrickh Tsandler Fridrickh Tsandler in 1924 suggested and developed the theoretical concepts of solar sailing. Tsandler is also remembered as a pre-war pioneer of liquid rocket propulsion led early experiments with liquid prolusion in the Soviet Union. Tsiolkovsky worked on the idea of solar sailing in the 1920's and suggested using solar pressure to drive spacecraft. Roman Kezerashvili, Opening, July 20, 2010

Echo-1 Balloon Satellite demonstrated the effect of solar pressure on the trajectory Echo 1 Aluminum-coated Mylar plastic balloon was launched August 12, 1960 NASA launches Echo 1 first U.S. passive communications satellite first time NASA includes solar pressure in calculating trajectory. Roman Kezerashvili, Openning July 20, 2010

Japanese Spacecraft Successfully Deploys First Solar Sail in Space The IKAROS, launched on May 21 st. JAXA began to deploy the solar sail on June 3 Japan became the first nation on the planet to successfully deploy a solar sail Roman Kezerashvili, Openning July 20, 2010

Congratulations! now solar-photon sailing in Space is no longer a nice dream - it is the definitive reality!

Dr. Russell Hotzler President