I know I've shared this one a lot lately, but so help me I just love the energy of this piece, which I've been playing around with a bit; lo, a slightly softer and brighter version of my sci-fi caprice "Reach for the Light" (yes, those are solar sails in silhouette).

#art #digitalart #digitalpainting #painting #solarsail #spaceflight #scifi #sciencefiction #star #sun #sunspot #spaceart

They might look "buggy", but hexagons are a real shape proposed for solar sails...and it looks like this fleet is going to take advantage of some serious radiation pressure, as they "Reach for the Suns".

Painting by me.

#art #spaceart #digitalart #digitalpainting #painting #spaceflight #stars #suns #sun #scifiart #solarsail #spacecradt #sciencefiction #sciencefictionart #scifi

Oh I'm sure it'd take the mother of all tinted windows to stop it from blinding you, but imagine being on a solar sail, making a fly-by to gain speed to your final destination, and then seeing *this* out your window. The ultimate scenic route, in my own painting, "Reach for the light".

#art #digitalart #digitalpainting #painting #scifi #scifiart #spaceart #spaceflight #solarsail #spacecraft #sun #star #sunspot

#NanoSail-D2
#Astronomy #Picture of the Day

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260102.html

#APOD #SolarSail

It might look a bit...off, at first glance, but hey, there are plenty of bright-white nigh-contact binary stars out there, and Maltese crosses have been proposed as a real shape for these crafts...

My own spacey piece, "Solar sailing round twin suns".

#art #digitalart #digitalpainting #painting #spaceflight #scifiart #scifi #sciencefiction #sciencefictionart #solarsail #spacecraft #stars #binarystars

Yes, flying saucers are a real proposed shape for solar sails. No, I'm not apologizing for it. My own artwork, "Full sail under a red giant".

#art #digitalart #digitalpainting #painting #spaceart #scifi #scifiart #sciencefiction #spaceflight #solarsail

My own artwork, "Reach for the Light": in the age of the solar sail, spacefarers will swing so close to sunspots it'll feel like they can reach right out and touch them. Perhaps, someday, we will...

#art #digitalart #digitalpainting #painting #scifi #sciencefiction #sun #spaceflight #solarsail

Future: Space-Floating Silicon Brains - Casey Handmer and Dwarkesh Patel

#silicon #space #posthuman #solarsail

Using sunlight to power up a flywheel in space to fling interstellar objects.

"Kipping began thinking about using sail materials to harvest the energy of solar photons, storing it in what could be considered a battery, and then using that stored energy, transformed into kinetic energy, to hurl a small spacecraft outwards."

https://www.centauri-dreams.org/2025/08/01/a-space-catapult-with-interstellar-potential/

#Energy #Storage #Space #SolarSail #Concepts