Thread: Light Sail
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Unread 10-11-2009, 09:33
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David Brinza David Brinza is offline
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Re: Light Sail

I'm a long-time member of the Planetary Society and recall an earlier attempt to launch a solar sail spacecraft called "Cosmos 1". The spacecraft was built in Russia with support from the members of the Planetary Society. Unfortunately, the submarine-launched rocket carrying Cosmos 1 failed to achieve orbit back in 2005. The LightSail mission is the next attempt by the Planetary Society to demonstrate a solar sail spacecraft.

NASA has also done developmental work on solar sails under its In-Space Propulsion Technology program at Marshall Space Flight Center (Alabama). A deployment test was performed in 2005m using the very large vacuum test facility operated by NASA Glenn Research Center in Plum Brook Station, Ohio.

Solar sail spacecraft have been studied for use in interplanetary missions as far back as the 1970's. While at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Louis Freeman (now president of the Planetary Society) led a project to use a solar sail propelled spacecraft to study Halley's comet in the 1986 flyby. The project was canceled, though the conclusion was reached that solar sails are a viable means of in-space propulsion.
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