lightsail
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NASA Set to Launch Solar Sail for Sunlight-Propelled Space Travel
NASA’s experimental solar sail is ready to take flight in Earth orbit, using the pressure of sunlight to test a new way of propulsion through the cosmos. The Advanced Composite Solar Sail System(ACS3) is scheduled for launch on Tuesday, April 23 on board Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket from New Zealand. The mission will use composite…
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The Daring LightSail 2 Spacecraft Is Being Sucked Into Fiery Doom
For the past three years, a tiny loaf-of-bread-sized spacecraft with gigantic wings has been sailing on sunbeams in low Earth orbit. LightSail 2 has far exceeded its life expectancy and proven that solar sails can indeed be used to fly spacecraft. But its journey around our planet is sadly coming to an end, as Earth’s…
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Here’s Our First Look At Bill Nye’s Even Bigger, Higher-Flying LightSail
Less than a year after the LightSail cubesat successfully deployed its solar sails in space, the Planetary Society has unveiled its successor, an experimental spacecraft designated LightSail-2.
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LightSail Hit By ‘Software Glitch’, Falls Silent To Radio Comms
The team behind the LightSail, a solar-sail based craft currently in orbit after a successful launch last week, is currently wrestling with a software glitch that has rendered the vehicle silent. Its only hope? A stray charged particle.