Nope. The sailing craft is going to start with some orbital velocity around the sun. How much depends on the details of the orbit after launch. The craft can be expected to have the orbital velocity of the earth +/- whatever velocity is added by engines in the launch process.
The craft then will as a consequence move in an elliptical orbit of increasing aphelion. The problem of arranging things to arrive at a particular destination is a non-trivial astrogation problem.
ravenousbugblatter writes: "How would the fact that you were relying on directional light from the sun affect the directions in which you wanted to sail? In other words, thinking like a boat sailor, would you be limited to certain angles from the sun?"
How can you create a keel or centerboard that will create drag in the vacuum of space? Without a keel or centerboard how does a sailboat move? More or less downwind, isn't it, regardless of what the helmsman or sail trimmers do. That's gonna be how solar sail spacecraft is going to move - more or less in the direction the sunlight is "blowing."
The solar sail spacecraft is going have to have some force acting on it that's not sunlight, if it is going to be effectively steerable like a sailboat.
Perhaps some force could be derived from the sun's magnetic field which extends throughout the planetary system. Or perhaps the particulate radiation from the sun - the "solar wind" - might be used.
But until NASA some kind of magnetic or solar wind trick, you're not going to able to steer much with your solar sail. - Unless you use rockets which kind of defeats the purpose of the sail.
Fiz
The article is a popular treatment without equations, but anyone who has completed a course in Modern Physics should be able to write down the equations.
Slashdot Mirror
The craft then will as a consequence move in an elliptical orbit of increasing aphelion. The problem of arranging things to arrive at a particular destination is a non-trivial astrogation problem.
Fiz
How can you create a keel or centerboard that will create drag in the vacuum of space? Without a keel or centerboard how does a sailboat move? More or less downwind, isn't it, regardless of what the helmsman or sail trimmers do. That's gonna be how solar sail spacecraft is going to move - more or less in the direction the sunlight is "blowing."
The solar sail spacecraft is going have to have some force acting on it that's not sunlight, if it is going to be effectively steerable like a sailboat.
Perhaps some force could be derived from the sun's magnetic field which extends throughout the planetary system. Or perhaps the particulate radiation from the sun - the "solar wind" - might be used.
But until NASA some kind of magnetic or solar wind trick, you're not going to able to steer much with your solar sail. - Unless you use rockets which kind of defeats the purpose of the sail.
Fiz
For a detailed explanation see the Dome News.
The article is a popular treatment without equations, but anyone who has completed a course in Modern Physics should be able to write down the equations.