posted 05-13-2015 02:28 PM               

Bill Nye launches Kickstarter to push solar sailing cubesat to space

Bill Nye ("The Science Guy") wants you to be a part – and get a part – of a "revolutionary solar sailing spacecraft" mission.

As leader of The Planetary Society, a non-profit dedicated to the exploration of the solar system, Nye has launched a crowdfunding campaign for the LightSail, a "citizen-funded flight by light" that will demonstrate a space travel concept first popularized by Carl Sagan nearly 40 years ago.

"Come along on a cosmic journey with me by participating in a mission to sail a spacecraft, a tiny CubeSat no bigger than a breadbox, on beams of light," invites Nye on the LightSail project's Kickstarter page. "Through this proof-of-concept mission, we will use CubeSats to open new paths beyond Earth and one day potentially to other planets with an inexpensive, inexhaustible means of propulsion."

To raise the $200,000 (and more) needed for the mission, Nye and The Planetary Society are giving away symbolic squares of the solar sail itself, as well as other rewards in return for pledges.