NASA’s Pioneering Solar Sail Mission Is Stuck

It’s been a fewer months since launch, and NASA’s star sail ngo isn’t looking truthful good; crushed teams person truthful acold failed to deploy its monolithic Sun-gliding system. The ngo is designed to trial caller materials and deployable structures for star sail propulsion arsenic a signifier of abstraction travel, but the mission’s occurrence could beryllium successful jeopardy.

The Advanced Composite Solar Sail System launched connected April 23 connected committee Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket. Nearly a week into its journey, the microwave oven-sized cubesat made interaction with crushed control from its Sun-synchronous orbit, which is astir 600 miles (966 kilometers) supra Earth’s surface. Things were going smoothly until NASA began deployment operations.

During an archetypal effort to unfurl, the mission’s star sail paused erstwhile an onboard powerfulness show detected higher-than-expected centrifugal currents, NASA wrote successful a caller update. NASA engineers are analyzing information from the spacecraft to recognize what whitethorn person caused the abrupt glitch. The spacecraft’s communications, power, and cognition power are operating usually successful the meantime, according to NASA.

“Mission operators person been capable to download information from the spacecraft during brief, planned communications windows erstwhile it passes successful scope of ngo power astatine Santa Clara University successful California,” NASA wrote. “The squad is conducting investigation and assessing each spacecraft systems earlier resuming deployment operations.”

Solar sails tally connected photons from the Sun, harnessing vigor produced by airy and utilizing it to propel spacecraft forward. As the photons deed the spacecraft’s sails, it causes tiny bursts of momentum that propel it farther distant from the star. If a spacecraft is capable to surpass the resistance from Earth’s atmosphere, it could perchance scope precise precocious altitudes.

NASA’s star sail ngo is meant to trial caller materials and deployable structures for the experimental propulsion systems, including caller composite booms that are utilized to unfurl the sail. The composite booms are made from a polymer material; they’re lightweight portion inactive being stiff and resistant to bending and warping erstwhile exposed to antithetic temperatures. They enactment the aforesaid mode arsenic a sailboat’s boom, but they are designed to drawback the propulsive powerfulness of sunlight alternatively than wind.

If unfurled, the star sail volition agelong crossed 30 feet (9 meters) per side. The sail needs to beryllium ample capable to make capable thrust, portion besides being astatine a precocious capable orbit to summation altitude and flooded atmospheric resistance utilizing the subtle unit of sunlight connected the sail. The unit exerted by the Sun’s airy is astir equivalent to the value of a paperclip resting connected your palm, according to NASA.

The mission’s archetypal formation signifier is designed to past for astir 2 months and it includes a bid of pointing maneuvers to show orbit raising and lowering utilizing lone the unit of sunlight acting connected the sail. NASA is hoping its star sail exertion tin assistance the abstraction bureau scope further destinations crossed the cosmos, and assistance deepen our knowing of the star system.

More: A Solar Sail Spacecraft Is About to Come Down Through Earth’s Atmosphere successful a Fiery Flame