The Cosmos-1 mission is privately funded - half the money will come from a TV studio - and lift-off will be from a Russian submarine in the Barents Sea.

The sail reflects particles of light, or photons, from the Sun, gaining momentum in the opposite direction and driving the spacecraft forward.

Some think solar sails offer a cheaper, faster form of spacecraft propulsion.

"Cosmos-1 is a short-term, modest mission that simply intends to prove the concept - that solar sailing is possible," The Planetary Society's Amir Alexander told the BBC.

"We are taking [solar sailing] from science fiction and speculation to actual working technology."

The US, European, Japanese and Russian space agencies also have solar sail programmes in the offing.

After launch, the 100kg (220lbs) Russian-built craft will reach an 800km- (500 mile-) high orbit. It will then take pictures of Earth for four days before unfurling its eight aluminium-backed plastic sail blades into a 30m (100ft) circle.

The craft will orbit Earth once every 101 minutes for weeks. The acceleration from sunlight is very small; but the advantage of solar sailing over chemical propulsion is that the acceleration is constant. Cosmos-1 will get faster and faster - and climb higher in orbit - as time goes on.

"Solar sailing is really the only known technology that could potentially take us to the stars one day, because it does not have to carry fuel with it and because it can keep accelerating - even at incredible distances," said Mr Alexander.

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Cosmos-1 will be launched into space aboard a modified Volna intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) from a submarine in the Barents Sea. Typically, the Volna does not have enough thrust to reach orbit.

But the missile used for Cosmos-1 will have an added rocket engine (kick stage) of a type used to de-orbit satellites.

The kick-stage engine will provide the additional thrust required to get Cosmos-1 into orbit.

The launch on Tuesday is timed for 1946 GMT (2046 BST).