The range of solar sailing is very vast; it is a fully in-space means of
propulsion that should allow us to accomplish various mission classes
that are literally impossible using rocket propulsion, no matter if
nuclear or electric. Fast and very fast solar sailings are special
classes of sailcraft missions, initially developed only in the first
half of the 1990s and still evolving, especially after the latest
advances in nanotechnology.
This book describes how to plan, compute and optimize the trajectories
of sailcraft with speeds considerably higher than 100 km/s; such
sailcraft would be able to explore the outer heliosphere, the near
interstellar medium and the solar gravitational lens (550-800
astronomical units) in times significantly shorter than the span of an
average career ( 35 years), just to cite a few examples. The scientific
interest in this type of exploration is huge.