Planetary Society declares LightSail spacecraft a success
The Planetary Society declared its experimental LightSail mission a success Tuesday after receiving a photograph from the small spacecraft showing the deployment of its Mylar solar sail.
"The image confirms the sails have unfurled, which was the final milestone of a shakedown mission designed to pave the way for a full-fledged solar sail flight in 2016," Jason Davis posted on the Planetary Society's web page.
Funded by the space advocacy group's members, the $4.3 million LightSail spacecraft was designed to test the software, mechanical systems, communications equipment and solar sail material that will be used in an operational flight next year to demonstrate propulsion using the gentle pressure of sunlight alone.
The LightSail spacecraft, made up of three connected 4-inch-square Cubesats, hitched a ride to low-Earth orbit May 20 aboard an Atlas 5 rocket carrying a classified military splaceplane.
Because of a software glitch, the Planetary Society lost contact with its satellite two days later, restored communications on May 31 and suffered through a second data dropout between June 3 and June 6. After resolving battery problems, commands were uplinked to deploy the solar sail. The first full image from on-board cameras was released Tuesday.
"The LightSail team is now downloading a second camera image from the opposite side of the spacecraft before it reenters Earth's atmosphere," Davis wrote. "Because LightSail was directly between the sun and Earth at the time of image acquisition on June 8, it is believed the second photograph may include a view of Earth."
He said engineers may attempt to drive out the sail mast a bit more in the days ahead to increase tension on the solar sail, "which could further flatten the wavy appearance of the Mylar. ... The team will analyze all sail imagery and any tensioning results in preparation for next year's flight, when LightSail operates in a higher orbit and uses sunlight for propulsion."
