LightSail 2 is ready to " tame solar energy and sail among the stars, " according to Bill Nye, director of The Planetary Society.
The 32 square meters solar sail inspired by Carl Sagan has indeed managed to deploy successfully on Tuesday, July 23.
The beginning of a beautiful adventure
A little less than a month after its launch and the success of its launch in orbit, the small Cubesats whose mass does not exceed 5 kg has managed to deploy in orbit its four triangular sails, forming the famous solar sail of 5.6 x 5.6 meters.
SAIL DEPLOYMENT COMPLETE! We're sailing on SUNLIGHT!!!!! pic.twitter.com/PA74NMa7Ry— Planetary Society (@exploreplanets) July 23, 2019
After a long series of tests and verifications, thanks to which we had the chance to appreciate some pretty pictures of our planet , the ground team of the Polytechnic State University of California ( Cal Poly San Luis Obispo) was able to initiate the deployment of the sail while it was passing into orbit above the control center.
As explained in the Planetary Society tweet below, " The deployment of the sail is manual and takes place in two stages. The team must first "arm" the sail for deployment and then send it the order to deploy.
LightSail 2 goes into solar navigation mode
A few minutes after carrying out these operations, the technicians were able to observe the proper deployment of the sail via telemetry data. They also managed to sail in solar-powered mode a little later in the day.
LightSail 2 is expected to send a few images shortly to give a visual confirmation of the good condition of its sail to the Planetary Society teams.
This mission, whose goal is to demonstrate that it is possible for a satellite to navigate only thanks to the radiation pressure emitted by the Sun, seems rather good!
0 Comments