Light-powered spacecrafts sound too good to be true but the technology is exactly what's being developed in NASA. With plans to launch a solar sail in 2018, the space agency is leading the charge to less expensive and more sustainable travel within -- and maybe even -- beyond the solar system.

According to a report from National Geographic, NASA is designing a small space probe with solar sails that are entirely powered by sunlight. The $16 million probe dubbed the Near-Earth Asteroid Scout is headed towards the 1991 VG asteroid, a destination that's 2.5 years away even at the projected speed of 63,975 miles per hour relative to the sun.

Eventually, it may even achieve greater speed than a spacecraft with a conventional chemical rocket. Les Johnson, the Technical Advisor for NASA's Advanced Concepts Office at the Marshall Space Flight Center, explained the concept saying a chemical rocket has a powerful thrust, but burns up fuel through time.

"A sail wins the race in terms of final velocity because it's the tortoise and the hare," Johnson said. "Since the sail doesn't use any fuel, we can keep thrusting as long as the sun is shining."

Solar sails are propelled by photons from the sun, which bounces off the sails and transfers the momentum to the spacecraft, pushing it forward. The idea has been around since Soviet rocket pioneers Konstantin Tsiolkovsky and Friedrick Tsander conceptualized the theory in 1924, but NASA only invested in the technology in the late 1990s. The agency was able to translate the theory into reality in 2010 when they successfully sent a sail-propelled satellite in space for 240 days.

The breakthrough truly came around with the development of electronics and the emergence of small, lightweight technology, since the power of sunlight can only achieve very high acceleration with very little mass.

"You couldn't imagine building a small enough spacecraft that didn't require a ginormous sail," Johnson pointed out. "With the advent of smart phones and the miniaturization of components, we're now able to make really lightweight, small spacecraft, which makes the size of the sail more reasonable."

The NEA Scout is only one of 13 science payloads that are set to hitch on the inaugural flight of the Space Launch System (SLS), a megarocket that will be replacing the space shuttle and eventually send Orion to Mars.

According to The Verge, while NASA seems to be gearing up for major advancements in the near future, a congressional committee recently pointed out that the agency's Journey to Mars lacks a clear plan, also citing funding and need for more technological advancements as other obstacles.