Drama in Low-Earth Orbit as LightSail 2 Deploys its Sails:
LightSail 2 has successfully deployed its solar sails. Shortly after 12:00 pm PST The Planetary Society tweeted that the sails were deployed, and that the spacecraft was sailing with sunlight. We can all enjoy their success and start to wonder how solar sails will fit into humanity's plans for space exploration.
[...] This is a dramatic moment for LightSail 2 and for The Planetary Society, the world's largest non-profit space organization. LightSail 2 is the third spacecraft in their LightSail program. It was launched on June 25th, and has been in orbit since then, preparing for sail deployment and sending us some sweet pictures of Earth.
[...] LightSail 2's sail is actually a system of four smaller triangular sails that make one large square when deployed. Once deployed, the sail measures 32 sq. meters, or 340 sq. ft. Once it's deployed, it can be used to raise the spacecraft's orbit, demonstrating the power and usefulness of solar sails.
[...] In some ways, the solar sail is exactly like a sail on a boat. The sail can be aimed at angles, to direct the travel of the spacecraft. If the sails are aimed directly at the Sun, the spacecraft will travel directly away from the Sun. But by tacking, or changing the angle of the sails, a spacecraft using solar sails can steer and propel itself through the Solar System and beyond.
Planetary Society Twitter feed.
Also at: The Register, NYT, and The Verge.
Previously:
Planetary Society Receiving Data From LightSail 2
One Legacy of Carl Sagan May Take Flight Next Week—a Working Solar Sail
Planetary Society's "LightSail" Solar Sail Test Launch on May 20
Related Stories
On May 20, the Planetary Society will launch a tiny "citizen-funded" satellite that will test the unfolding of a 32 m2 (344 ft2) solar sail. A solar sail uses radiation pressure from the Sun over a large surface area to propel a spacecraft. IKAROS was the first spacecraft to successfully demonstrate the technology in space. While this month's mission is simply a test of the sail deployment, the main mission, LightSail-1, will launch high enough to actually test the sail as a means of propulsion:
LightSail-1's goal is to test if solar sails are a viable form of space transport. The theory will be tested by measuring if there is any increase in LightSail-1's orbital speed once the spacecraft is released at an altitude of 500 miles (800 km). The Planetary Society originally hoped to launch LightSail-1 in 2012, but in 2014 announced that it is scheduled for launch in April 2016.
An initial test launch of the LightSail spacecraft is scheduled for May 2015. This launch will deliver the satellite to an orbit low enough that atmospheric drag exceeds the thrust available from the light sail, but will allow a full checkout of the satellite's systems in advance of the main 2016 mission.
If LightSail-1 is successful, then the Planetary Society will execute two more solar sail projects with more complex goals. LightSail-2's goal will be to collect scientific data and improve solar sailing control. LightSail-3's goal would be to travel to the L1 Lagrangian point. There, it would be used to detect geomagnetic storms on the Sun, which can damage power and communication systems on Earth and orbiting spacecraft. Such detection will provide earlier warnings of potential power failures.
One Legacy of Carl Sagan may Take Flight Next Week-A Working Solar Sail:
As early as next Monday night, a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket will launch a cluster of 24 satellites for the US Air Force. Known as the Space Test Program-2 mission, the rocket will deposit its payloads into three different orbits. Perhaps the most intriguing satellite will be dropped off at the second stop—a circular orbit 720km above the Earth's surface. This is the Planetary Society's LightSail 2 spacecraft.
After a week in space, allowing the satellites deposited in this orbit to drift apart, LightSail 2 will eject from its carrying case into open space. About the size of a loaf of bread, the 5-kg satellite will eventually unfurl into a solar sail 4 meters long by 5.6 meters tall. The Mylar material composing the sail is just 4.5 microns thick, or about one-tenth as thick as a human hair.
This experiment, which will attempt to harness the momentum of photons and "sail" through space, is the culmination of decades of work by The Planetary Society. "This goes back to the very beginning, to Carl Sagan, Bruce Murray and Lou Friedman," the organization's chief executive, Bill Nye, told Ars in an interview. "We are carrying on a legacy that has been with us since the founders. It's just an intriguing technology because it lowers the cost of going all over the place in the Solar System."
There were two prior attempts by the Planetary Society at deploying light sails. In 2005, the first stage of the rocket launching Cosmos 1 failed. In 2015, LightSail 1 was able to achieve orbit but experienced several technical difficulties from which lessons were learned and used to inform the design of this upcoming attempt with LightSail 2.
More details about the process can be found at the Planetary Society.
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)
LightSail 2 has been flying for 30 months now, paving the way for future solar sail missions:
Even after 30 months in space, The Planetary Society's LightSail 2 mission continues to successfully "sail on sunbeams," demonstrating solar sail technology in Earth orbit. The mission is providing hard data for future missions that hope to employ solar sails to explore the cosmos.
LightSail 2, a small cubesat, launched in June 2019 on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy, as a demonstration mission to test how well a solar sail could change the orbit of a spacecraft. A month after launch, when LightSail 2 unfurled its ultra-thin 32-square-meter Mylar sail, the mission was declared a success because the sail raised the orbit of the small, loaf-of-bread-sized spacecraft.
"We're going to a higher orbital altitude without rocket fuel, just with the push of sunlight," The Planetary Society's (TPS) CEO Bill Nye said at a press conference following the deployment. "This idea that you could fly a spacecraft and could get propulsion in space form nothing but photons, it's surprising, and for me, it's very romantic that you'd be sailing on sunbeams."
LightSail 2 Has Been Flying in Space for 30 Months – Paving the Way for Future Solar Sail Missions:
(Score: 2, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 24 2019, @08:41PM (12 children)
Yes, in some ways... but since there is no keel, you can only get force in direction away from the sun.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 24 2019, @08:48PM (4 children)
. . . and in some other ways, it is not.
(Score: 4, Funny) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday July 24 2019, @09:10PM (3 children)
But it will help us get Space Pirates.
Arrrgh me hearties.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 24 2019, @10:10PM
Don't think we're not on to you and your Soyvertisements!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/107200/Space_Pirates_and_Zombies/ [steampowered.com]
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Thursday July 25 2019, @05:09AM
He tore the damn sail again!
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2) by istartedi on Thursday July 25 2019, @06:43AM
But not Space Cowboys. Bet you weren't ready for that [youtube.com].
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 3, Funny) by aristarchus on Wednesday July 24 2019, @11:52PM
Not having a keel is the least of your problems! Not having anything for a keel to push against is a bigger one. But no hull resistance! Besides, heading toward the sun is no problem, you just drop sails and reduce orbital momentum, and fall to a fiery death. Interstellar Medium Space Keel, . . . hmm? Profit?
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 25 2019, @12:47AM (4 children)
Tip it at an angle and you get thrust perpendicular to the Sun-spacecraft line. Use that to counter your orbital velocity, and you move inward.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Thursday July 25 2019, @12:51AM (3 children)
No, you would not. This is the problem. Even a beam reach is not possible for a solar sail!
(Score: 2) by deimtee on Thursday July 25 2019, @03:57AM (2 children)
Not perpendicular, but definitely off-axis.
There are two components to the momentum transfer. One is the direct impingement which is always on the sun-sail line. The other is in the opposite direction to the direction of the reflected beam. If the sail is at an angle of 45° to the sun, the beam will leave at 90° to its original line, giving an effective direction of thrust 45° off the sun-sail line. You can't directly tack 'upwind', but you can increase or decrease your orbital speed which has the same effect.
Another way is if you are in orbit around anything other than the sun you can simply wait until the direction of thrust you want is along the sun-sail line. In reality, you would use the best combination of both.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Thursday July 25 2019, @06:28AM (1 child)
My only point. Of course, if your impulse away from the Solar mass exceeded the reduction in orbital velocity, you may not end up where you thought you would be. I recommend a close reading of the Odyssey, navigational errors can result in you being stranded with nymphs (Callisto), or Goddesses (Circe), or planets (Europa). Sailing is not a way of life for the faint of heart!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 25 2019, @01:35PM
Ay me hearty. But even an impressed man will learn the ropes in time.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 25 2019, @03:18AM
Do you even physics bro?
(Score: 3, Funny) by ealbers on Wednesday July 24 2019, @08:48PM
just a few more to help offset global warming :-)
(Score: 4, Insightful) by inertnet on Wednesday July 24 2019, @08:57PM (7 children)
Has the meaning of the word 'drama' changed recently?
From reading that title I assumed something went wrong. Or was this just clickbait (by the authors of TFA, this isn't meant as criticism towards soylentnews.org)?
(Score: 5, Funny) by Sulla on Wednesday July 24 2019, @09:02PM
And yet they wouldn't accept my title of
SHAME
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 24 2019, @09:07PM
So seems like it is using the less used meaning, but I had the same reaction you did. I bet they had to bust out their clickbait thesaurus.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday July 24 2019, @09:25PM (4 children)
That is not how I submitted it.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by insanumingenium on Wednesday July 24 2019, @10:57PM (3 children)
How exactly does that work then?
(Score: 4, Touché) by takyon on Wednesday July 24 2019, @11:34PM (2 children)
I subbed as seen here: https://soylentnews.org/submit.pl?op=viewsub&subid=35217 [soylentnews.org]
I was too lazy to fill out the details but I had ScienceAlert as the main source and my own headline. Then presumably bytram used the Universe Today headline and text instead.
It is all a nitpick though. Drama over the word "drama".
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 4, Funny) by martyb on Thursday July 25 2019, @11:40AM (1 child)
Correct.
I loaded and read the ScienceAlert story [sciencealert.com], provided in the original story submission. At the bottom of that page I found:
(Emphasis in original.)
As the stories seemed identical, I removed the indirection and updated the link (and yes, the title) to match Universe Today. I had a "twinge" about the use of the word "drama", but I was distracted from fixing that as I searched for our prior coverage on LightSail 2 and worked to include those links in this story.
Now that the story has gone live and the use of the word has already been commented on, I'll just leave it in as is so as not to disrupt the comment threads.
I apologize for any drama it may have caused. =)
Wit is intellect, dancing.
(Score: 2) by insanumingenium on Thursday July 25 2019, @03:23PM
I wasn't trying to criticize your "moose turd pie", just had some misconstrued ideas about what would and would not be changed after submission. Reflecting the original source seems like it should be a good default, and I am sure it is in a majority of circumstances, but then you end up with people like us grousing you over an overly theatrical source.
In other words sorry about all the drama for dramas sake. =)
P.S. thank you both, this place is one of my favorite places, and it wouldn't be running without you.
(Score: 5, Informative) by RandomFactor on Wednesday July 24 2019, @09:10PM (1 child)
All images from Lightsail 2 [amazonaws.com], sorted by day.
В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
(Score: 2) by opinionated_science on Thursday July 25 2019, @04:52PM
much appreciated!
Some good person might make a nice movie ;-)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 24 2019, @09:10PM
I want to figure out when it will be sunlit to see if I can see it in the sky at night.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Wednesday July 24 2019, @10:21PM (3 children)
How does it go anywhere when the sun sets?
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 24 2019, @11:08PM
It flips over and points the other way.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Sulla on Thursday July 25 2019, @12:34AM (1 child)
When the sun sets it has a backup dark matter drive
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 3, Funny) by Gaaark on Thursday July 25 2019, @02:05AM
AHHHH! I I HATE YOU!
AHHHHH! MY NEW ARCH NEMESIS!
Are you Moriarty? Meet me at Reichenbach-to-the-Future Falls.
Ah, there's my meds...
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---