Posted on 04/23/2024 11:22:53 AM PDT by Red Badger
An artist’s concept of NASA’s Advanced Composite Solar Sail System spacecraft in orbit. NASA plans to launch the solar sail this week from New Zealand to perform navigation tests, using sunlight to propel it. Image courtesy of NASA/Aero Animation/Ben Schweighart April 22 (UPI) -- NASA is gearing up for a launch this week that will test a new way to navigate the solar system, using a large sail to catch the sunlight.
The Advanced Composite Solar Sail System is scheduled to lift off Wednesday in New Zealand aboard a Rocket Lab Electron rocket from NASA's Complex 1 on the Mahia Peninsula.
"We can sail, we can sail with solar sail tech, launching no earlier than April 24 from New Zealand. With new composite booms, it would transform how we explore our solar system," NASA wrote Monday in a post on X.
VIDEO AT LINK.....................
After launch, the Rob Lab Electron rocket will deploy the microwave oven-sized CubeSat about 600 miles above Earth, more than twice the altitude of the International Space Station. After an initial flight phase, the CubeSat will then deploy the reflective 860 square-foot solar sail, which is roughly the size of six parking spots.
Instead of being propelled by wind, the solar sail will use the pressure of the sunlight to move through space. The sail will be positioned toward or away from the sun for photons to bounce off the reflective sail to push the spacecraft. Using sails could eliminate the need for heavy propulsion systems and lower the cost of NASA missions.
"The sun will continue burning for billions of years, so we have a limitless source of propulsion. Instead of launching massive fuel tanks for future missions, we can launch larger sails that use 'fuel' already available," said Alan Rhodes, the mission's lead systems engineer at NASA's Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley.
NASA plans to test the sail, and the composite boom that holds it, in a series of maneuvers to adjust the spacecraft's orbit and gather data for future missions that could use larger sails.
"Booms have tended to be either heavy and metallic or made of lightweight composite with a bulky design -- neither of which work well for today's small spacecraft. Solar sails need very large, stable and lightweight booms that can fold down completely," said Keats Wilkie, the mission's principal investigator at NASA's Langley Research Center in Virginia.
"This sail's booms are tube-shaped and can be squashed flat and rolled like a tape measure into a small package while offering all the advantages of composite materials, like less bending and flexing during temperature changes," Wilkie added.
According to NASA, the lightweight, compact design of the composite booms could eventually be used to frame structures on the moon or Mars.
"This technology sparks the imagination, reimagining the whole idea of sailing and applying it to space travel," said Rudy Aquilina, project manager of the solar sail mission at NASA Ames.
"Demonstrating the abilities of solar sails and lightweight, composite booms is the next step in using this technology to inspire future missions."
Space Ping!................
Aviation Ping!....................
But what will they do at night?
Jk
This concept has gotten a lot of play in Science Fiction ... very curious to see how it works out in science fact.
Also, I’m a big fan of Rocket Lab.
“what will they do at night?”
Silly! They will fly around to the other side of the sun where it’s bright.
Is Bill gates paying for it to test BLOCKING SUNLIGHT ?
This is nothing new, been done in the past, several times.
More space pollution.
At the risk of being a dork ...
The Crookes Radiometer is not a solar sail, it is a heat engine. The bulb is only partially evacuated. E-M radiation on the vanes heats the black side more than the white side. gas molecules striking the black side are deflected with greater energy (and, therefore, force) than those striking the white side, causing the black side to deflect away from the light source.
Some early theories of how the thing works did indeed suggest photon pressure. This is disproven ... if the bulb is pulled down to a hard vacuum, the rotor no longer spins.
Well, we are going interstelar solar?
What a joke.
There goes all the budget for fusion engine research, where we could at east contemlate speeds approching 186,000 mph, the speed of light.
Sailing space is a step back in time for real.
186k miles per SECOND.......................
IKAROS is in interplanetary space.
The others were all deorbited.
So, no space pollution.
using a large sail to catch the sunlight.
I would think as I travelled far from the sun, the light energy would decrease until it effectivelly stopped.
a baby Oumuamua ...
If you got A LOT of time and your sending a robot so you don’t have a supplies problem solar sails would be fine.
Ha ha! Ya beat me to it. :)
I remember a Sci-Fi book or story that talked about a very similar mode of propulsion.
AOC, is that you?
If it can be used to remove Zod, I'm all for it.
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