Traveling to Space and beyond using light - Light sails
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| Solar Sail |
Solar sails are a way of traveling through space and towards the great beyond. They are one of the best NASA sailing instruments. They don't use rocket fuel for traveling instead they use light to propel themselves towards space. They are also called light sails. Light sails are a project demonstrated by the planetary society to prove that light can propel small spacecraft such as CubeSats.
IKAROS
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| IKAROS mission by Japan |
The first demonstration was done by Japan Aerospace Exploration Centre and it is called IKAROS.IKAROS is the first-ever probe to use light as a source of propulsion. It was designed to demonstrate the measurement of acceleration and attitude control. This probe also does experiments on gamma-ray bursts, cosmic dust, and Solar wind. This square sail placed on the probe is about 20 m wide and has a thickness of 7.5 micrometers.
This probe also has an instrument called ALLADIN which measures variation in dust density. It spins at about 20 - 25 revolutions per minute.
It was sent on a 6 month trip to Venus. During this trip attitude control and acceleration were successfully analyzed. It also successfully flew close to Venus at a distance of about 80800 kilometers. Then it went to deep hibernation mode. At that time it was about 150 million km away from Earth and also at a distance of 130 million kilometers away from Sun.
LIGHTSAIL 2
There was another spacecraft called Lightsail 2 which was launched in 2019. It also uses sunlight to change orbit. This mission also helps us to learn more about the propulsion of light and to develop future advanced solar sailing technology. This spacecraft carries a small disc that contains names and messages of the people who worked on this project. It has a size of about 5.6 x 5.6m.
It has four solar rays and 8 rechargeable batteries to power the spacecraft. It also has a two-megapixel camera to capture amazing images. Light sail 2 is expected to remain in orbit until the second half of 2021. This spacecraft is now in an Orbit of about 707 kilometers.
To see the latest images from Lightsail 2 click here
Upcoming missions
NASA is planning 3 new missions using light sails. They are called NEA Scout, Solar Cruiser, and ACS3.
NEA Scout is planned to launch in 2021. It will at first travel to the moon and then it goes to a nearby asteroid. This is because of the fact that asteroids are so old and they might give us an idea about the birth of the solar system.
Solar Cruiser will launch in 2025. It will have the largest sail which is about the size of 6 tennis fields, an area of 1650 square meters. It will stay in Orbit between the sun and earth. It also has instruments that give us warning about solar storms in advance. This mission will test the use of lightweight solar panels.
Why this might be key to the future?
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| Future Light Sails |
Why this technology gains so much attention is because of the fact that light sails could be the future of space travel. This might enable us to travel deep into interstellar space as light is the only fuel it needs. This method will be widely used in the future to find new planets and gather data from them. That said, it is one of the best NASA sailing instruments.
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