LightSail 2 Sends Back 1st Signals from Its Solar-Surfing Test Flight
The space advocacy organization The Planetary Society recently confirmed that its LightSail 2 spacecraft has sent its first signals home from space.
The roughly 11-lb. (5 kilograms) cubesat is designed to prove that solar sailing is a feasible way of keeping satellites moving. Fuel is a costly and heavy commodity, and if LightSail 2 can prove that the solar-powered technique works well, perhaps future missions into the deep reaches of the solar system and beyond can be propelled by the charged particles released by the sun.
The project launched into space last week (June 25) from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy megarocket. On Tuesday (July 2), the bread-loaf-size LightSail 2 experiment left Prox-1, its carrier vehicle. LightSail 2 will ultimately open up its ultrathin four-panel sail to achieve a surface area about the size of a boxing ring.
[...] Once the cubesat deploys its solar sail early next week, the rays from the sun will give LightSail 2 a gentle push. The goal is to observe LightSail 2 over the course of a month to see if it shifts in its orbit by a measurable amount, according to The Planetary Society officials. That will help demonstrate that solar sailing is an effective satellite-propulsion technique.
In other news, 'Oumuamua is not an alien light sail, probably.
See also: What's the Difference between LightSail 1 and LightSail 2?
First Contact! LightSail 2 Phones Home to Mission Control
See the Latest Data from LightSail 2 on Our New Mission Control Dashboard (here)
Previously: Planetary Society's "LightSail" Solar Sail Test Launch on May 20
Lightsail Update: Back in Communication
Planetary Society's LightSail Has Finally Deployed After Multiple Setbacks
One Legacy of Carl Sagan May Take Flight Next Week—a Working Solar Sail
Falcon Heavy to Launch STP-2; 4-Hour Window Opens @ 2019-06-25 2:30am EDT (2019-06-25 0630 UTC)
(Score: 3, Funny) by Runaway1956 on Friday July 05 2019, @09:17PM (3 children)
Or, the top surface area of about 4 SUV's.
(Score: 5, Funny) by TrentDavey on Friday July 05 2019, @10:34PM (2 children)
Why can't you Americans stick with the metric system we have here in Canada of ice hockey rinks? Sheesh.
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Saturday July 06 2019, @06:34AM (1 child)
How many toques is that?
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Monday July 08 2019, @02:58PM
Depends upon how many goals were scored by a single player in the game. Tricky calculation.
This sig for rent.