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ABOVE VIDEO: NASA's Advanced Composite Solar Sail System seeks to advance future space travel and expand our understanding of our Sun and Solar System.
(NASA) – Sailing through space might sound like something out of science fiction, but the concept is no longer limited to books or the big screen. In April, a next-generation solar sail technology – known as the Advanced Composite Solar Sail System – will launch aboard Rocket Lab's Electron rocket from the company's Launch Complex 1 in Māhia, New Zealand.
Solar sails use the pressure of sunlight for propulsion, angling toward or away from the Sun so that photons bounce off the reflective sail to push a spacecraft.
This eliminates heavy propulsion systems and could enable longer-duration and lower-cost missions. Although mass is reduced, solar sails have been limited by the material and structure of the booms, which act much like a sailboat's mast. But NASA is about to change the sailing game for the future.
The Advanced Composite Solar Sail System demonstration uses a twelve-unit (12U) CubeSat built by NanoAvionics to test a new composite boom made from flexible polymer and carbon fiber materials that are stiffer and lighter than previous boom designs. The mission's primary objective is to successfully demonstrate new boom deployment, but once deployed, the team also hopes to prove the sail's performance.
Like a sailboat turning to capture the wind, the solar sail can adjust its orbit by angling its sail. After evaluating the boom deployment, the mission will test a series of maneuvers to change the spacecraft's orbit and gather data for potential future missions with even larger sails.
"Booms have tended to be either heavy and metallic or made of lightweight composite with a bulky design – neither of which work well for today's small spacecraft. Solar sails need very large, stable, and lightweight booms that can fold down compactly," said Keats Wilkie, the mission's principal investigator at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.
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