One of the most effective methods of steering a Sail is to move the spacecraft off the Sail’s center, changing the center of Mass. Any shift in the Center of Mass (CM) of the craft relative to the center of pressure (CP) on a sail effectively changes the Sail’s attitude. We propose to demonstrate TRL 4 with a mock Solar Sail and Spacecraft Bus operating on an air-table (modified air-hockey).

The use of electromagnets to couple a spacecraft bus to spinning or static solar sail is revolutionary – it will reduce the coupling and control mass by a factor of 10 or more and enable far larger sail area by allowing the sail to rotate.