Outerspace sailing ship unveiled at aerospace show

BERLIN - Just as early explorers reached new continents in sailing ships, so will humans sail out into the solar system - but by harnessing the power of sunlight instead of wind.

That's the vision of a group of engineers at the International Aerospace Exhibition. On Tuesday, they unveiled a prototype solar sail designed to capture the energy of the sun and transport humans and cargo through space without engines or fuel.

It can do it at speeds of 223,220 mph, nearly 10 times as fast as the U.S. space shuttle and quick enough to get you from Los Angeles to New York in a little over a minute.

''This is our mission, to project mankind beyond the loneliness of our own solar system,'' said Nersi Razavi, whose Paris-based company Star of Tolerance is the first to contract the solar sail for commercial use.

The idea of a solar sail is not a new one. But the sail unveiled Tuesday is the first prototype capable of being steered from the ground and carrying a payload.

The solar sail could be conducting its first tests in outer space by the end of next year and will be launched atop a converted Russian missile.

The sail captures the photons that constantly shoot from the sun in a phenomenon known as the solar wind. The impact of these light particles crashing against the silver film drives the craft forward.

At this point, the sail can carry only microsatellites, too small to transmit more than radio signals. To transport a human, the sail would have to be several square miles in size.