Space News by Jeff Foust — July 31, 2019
The Planetary Society announced July 31 that a small satellite it launched a month earlier had successfully demonstrated the ability to change its orbit with a solar sail.
The nonprofit space advocacy organization said LightSail 2 raised the apogee of its orbit by 1.7 kilometers over four days after the three-unit cubesat deployed a 32-square-meter Mylar sail. Spacecraft engineers determined the only way that the spacecraft could have raised its orbit during that time is because of thrust created by solar pressure on the sail.
“Today is the day we declare mission success,†said Bill Nye, chief executive of The Planetary Society, in a call with reporters. “We are going to a higher orbital altitude without rocket fuel, just from the push of sunlight.â€
LightSail 2 launched as one of the payloads on the Space Test Program 2 mission, launched by a Falcon Heavy rocket June 25 from the Kennedy Space Center. LightSail 2 was contained within a larger satellite, Prox-1, which released it July 2. Controllers checked out the spacecraft’s systems before deploying the sail July 23.
Controllers plan to continue raising the spacecraft for about a month, using the sail to raise the apogee of its orbit. At the same time, the spacecraft’s perigee decreases from the effects of atmospheric drag on the spacecraft. Controllers will also use the time to tweak the spacecraft’s operations, such as how it desaturates its momentum wheel, to improve the solar sail’s efficiency.
More:
https://spacenews.com/planetary-society-declares-solar-sailing-mission-a-success/
