NASA has launched the Solar Sail mission into orbitalso known as ‘Advanced Composite Solar Sail System’, to test a new way to navigate the solar system, as announced this Monday, April 22.
This initiative, launched aboard a Rocket Lab Electron rocket from New Zealand, aims to harness the power of sunlight to navigate through space, expand understanding of the solar system, demonstrate sail performance, and advance future space travel. But why has NASA put into orbit a CubeSat that uses the power of sunlight for propulsion? Specifically, this space agency has opted for solar sails because the light can propel a ship to travel through space, in this way, Longer duration missions are enhanced at a more economical cost.
What was the launch of NASA’s Solar Sail mission like?
The Solar Sail mission took off aboard a Rocket Lab Electron rocket to deploy a CubeSat 965 kilometers above EarthHowever, to test the performance of the solar sail, the ship must be in a high enough orbit so that the force of sunlight overcomes atmospheric resistance and gains altitude.
After this phase that lasts approximately two months, the aforementioned CubeSat will deploy its reflective solar sail and, after 25 minutes, it will perform a series of pointing maneuvers to change the orbit of the spacecraft and collect data for future missions with even bigger sails.
Likewise, it is important to mention that The solar sail will measure about 80 square meters once deployed and its integrated cameras will capture the entire deployment process. Additionally, this mission may be visible from Earth if lighting conditions are adequate.
NASA confirms the launch of the solar sail
NASA reports on its official blog that “NASA’s ‘Advanced Composite Solar Sail System’ has been deployed from Rocket Lab’s electron kick stage. The satellite has reached low Earth orbit to begin its mission to test next-generation technology that uses the power of sunlight for propulsion.
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