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Wired.com: Japanese Spacecraft Deploys First-Ever Solar Sail

The first solar sail ever to be used by a spacecraft has been deployed. Awesome.

My favourite part is with regards to how they deploy it:

The key difficulty with such a thin and large object is that it’s hard to deploy. “The things we’re watching for are all their dynamical behaviors that you ultimately can’t model and that might cause undue stress on the material,” Friedman said.
In the IKAROS design, the sail was unfurled by using centrifugal force generated by spinning the craft.

Awesome idea.

The Future Now

[SCENE: A mechanic’s garage. A nervous customer watches as a car mechanic looks over his vehicle.]
Customer: So… what’s the problem?
Mechanic: Weerlll…. it’s your software, innit.
Customer: My… software?
Mechanic: O’course, mate. You’re runnin’ 10.3. You should runnin’ at least 11.1 on a vehicle o’ this make.
Customer: I see. Well, that doesn’t sound too expensive.
Mechanic: Weeerll, you say that, mate, but I got parts and labour to consider, dun’t I? I’m an ‘onest businessman, I am.
Customer: But… it’s a software update. There are no parts involved, really. I mean, I could probably do that myself.
Mechanic: Uh… weeerll. Uh. Dunno ‘bout that.