NASA Has a Zany Plan to Sail to an Asteroid - Gizmodo

NASA wants to propel a shoebox-sized spacecraft to an asteroid using a solar sail, the first deep space mission by the agency to use such a mechanism.

Gas thrusters will put the CubeSat on a trajectory for the nearby asteroid target, but the solar sail will do the propulsion work for the rest of the two-year journey.

The bigger the solar sail, the more sunlight the craft can capture.

The scout will be heading to an asteroid called 2020 GE, which was first seen in March 2020 (hence its name.) The asteroid is less than 60 feet across, and because asteroids its size have not been explored up close before, it’s a great research target.