. 24/7 Space News .
SPACE TRAVEL
LightSail 2 set to launch next month
by Staff Writers
Los Angeles CA (SPX) May 14, 2019

The LightSail project started in 2009. The spacecraft was built by Stellar Exploration, Inc. The lead contractor for integration and testing is Ecliptic Enterprises Corporation, with testing, storage and ground support provided by Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Planetary Society Chief Scientist Bruce Betts serves as the LightSail program manager. The project manager and mission manager is Purdue University's David Spencer.

The Planetary Society's LightSail 2 spacecraft is ready to embark on a challenging mission to demonstrate the power of sunlight for propulsion. Weighing just 5 kilograms, the loaf-of-bread-sized spacecraft, known as a CubeSat, is scheduled to lift off on 22 June 2019 aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Kennedy Space Center, Florida. Once in space, LightSail 2 will deploy a boxing ring-sized solar sail and attempt to raise its orbit using the gentle push from solar photons.

It's the culmination of a 10-year project with an origin story linked to the 3 scientist-engineers who founded The Planetary Society in 1980.

"Forty years ago, my professor Carl Sagan shared his dream of using solar sail spacecraft to explore the cosmos. The Planetary Society is realizing the dream," said Planetary Society CEO Bill Nye. "Thousands of people from all over the world came together and supported this mission. We couldn't have done it without them. Carl Sagan, and his colleagues Bruce Murray and Louis Friedman, created our organization to empower people everywhere to advance space science and exploration. We are go for launch!"

If successful, LightSail 2 will become the first spacecraft to raise its orbit around the Earth using sunlight. While light has no mass, it has momentum that can be transferred to other objects. A solar sail harnesses this momentum for propulsion. LightSail 2 will demonstrate the application of solar sailing for CubeSats, small, standardized spacecraft that have made spaceflight more affordable for academics, government organizations, and private institutions.

LightSail 2 will ride to space aboard the Department of Defense's Space Test Program-2 (STP-2) mission scheduled for launch on 22 June 2019, which will send 24 spacecraft to three different orbits. LightSail 2 itself will be enclosed within Prox-1, a Georgia Tech-designed spacecraft originally built to demonstrate close-encounter operations with other spacecraft. Prox-1 will deploy LightSail 2 seven days after launch.

After a few days of health and status checks, LightSail 2's four dual-sided solar panels will swing open. Roughly a day later, four metallic booms will unfurl four triangular Mylar sails from storage. The sails, which have a combined area of 32 square meters, will turn towards the Sun for half of each orbit, giving the spacecraft a tiny push no stronger than the weight of a paperclip. For about a month after sail deployment, this continual thrust should raise LightSail 2's orbit by a measurable amount.

The Planetary Society launched a nearly identical spacecraft called LightSail 1 in 2015 that successfully tested the spacecraft's sail deployment system. LightSail 2 will fly to an orbit 720 kilometers high, where the acceleration from sunlight overcomes atmospheric drag. The spacecraft may be visible in the night sky for a year to observers within 42 degrees of the equator, which includes the U.S. as far north as Chicago and New York.

The Society launched a larger sail named Cosmos 1 in 2005 that did not reach orbit after a failure of the spacecraft's Russian-built rocket. Planetary Society co-founder Louis Friedman led a 1970s NASA solar sail study that would have sent a spacecraft to rendezvous with Halley's Comet. Fellow Society co-founder Carl Sagan showed off a model of the spacecraft on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson in 1976.

Results from the LightSail 2 mission are already helping to inform future solar sail projects by other organizations. NASA's NEA Scout spacecraft will launch to the Moon aboard the first Space Launch System flight and use a solar sail to visit a near-Earth asteroid. The Planetary Society shares LightSail project data with NASA through a Space Act Agreement.

The LightSail project started in 2009. The spacecraft was built by Stellar Exploration, Inc. The lead contractor for integration and testing is Ecliptic Enterprises Corporation, with testing, storage and ground support provided by Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Planetary Society Chief Scientist Bruce Betts serves as the LightSail program manager. The project manager and mission manager is Purdue University's David Spencer.


Related Links
LightSail 2
Space Tourism, Space Transport and Space Exploration News


Thanks for being there;
We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain.

With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords.

Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year.

If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter
$5+ Billed Monthly


paypal only
SpaceDaily Contributor
$5 Billed Once


credit card or paypal


SPACE TRAVEL
New, fast solar wind propulsion system is aim of NASA, UAH study
Huntsville AL (SPX) Apr 14, 2016
Scientists at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) are set to use computer models to investigate the results of experimental testing at NASA'S Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville to develop an engineering tool to design missions using a new type of long-distance space propulsion. The Heliopause Electrostatic Rapid Transit System Electric Sail (HERTS E-Sail) is entering basic research testing at Marshall. The propulsion system, which uses no propellant, would harness the solar wind ... read more

Comment using your Disqus, Facebook, Google or Twitter login.



Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle

SPACE TRAVEL
NASA awards ATLAS Space Operations space operations partnership

Luxembourg and US agree to deepen cooperation in space

High-tech supremacy at stake in US-China trade war

RSC Energia developed a one-orbit rendezvous profile

SPACE TRAVEL
Rocket Lab to launch rideshare mission for Spaceflight

Air Force releases proposal request for the Phase 2 Launch Service Procurement Contract

SpaceX's Dragon Cargo capsule docks with Space Station

Rocket Crafters Chooses RUAG Space as Preferred Supplier

SPACE TRAVEL
Why this Martian full moon looks like candy

For InSight, dust cleanings will yield new science

New water cycle on Mars discovered

Lockheed Martin completes testing milestone for Mars 2020 heat shield

SPACE TRAVEL
China's Yuanwang-7 departs for space monitoring missions

China's tracking ship Yuanwang-2 starts new mission after retirement

China to build moon station in 'about 10 years'

China to enhance international space cooperation

SPACE TRAVEL
SpaceX nears first launch of its Starlink satellites

Airbus to build multimission satellite for MEASAT

Maxar Technologies to receive full insurance payout for WorldView-4 loss

New space race to bring satellite internet to the world

SPACE TRAVEL
Physicists propose perfect material for lasers

Discovery may lead to new materials for next-generation data storage

Researchers create 'force field' for super materials

Gold helps CT scans pick up the finest surface structures

SPACE TRAVEL
Gravitational forces in protoplanetary disks may push super-Earths close to their stars

Rare-Earth metals in the atmosphere of a glowing-hot exoplanet

Cosmic dust reveals new insights on the formation of solar system

Planetary Habitability? It's What's Inside That Counts

SPACE TRAVEL
Brazilian scientists investigate dwarf planet's ring

Next-Generation NASA Instrument Advanced to Study the Atmospheres of Uranus and Neptune

Public Invited to Help Name Solar System's Largest Unnamed World

Europa Clipper High-Gain Antenna Undergoes Testing









The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2024 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. All articles labeled "by Staff Writers" include reports supplied to Space Media Network by industry news wires, PR agencies, corporate press officers and the like. Such articles are individually curated and edited by Space Media Network staff on the basis of the report's information value to our industry and professional readership. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Statement Our advertisers use various cookies and the like to deliver the best ad banner available at one time. All network advertising suppliers have GDPR policies (Legitimate Interest) that conform with EU regulations for data collection. By using our websites you consent to cookie based advertising. If you do not agree with this then you must stop using the websites from May 25, 2018. Privacy Statement. Additional information can be found here at About Us.