NASA has completed the deployment into orbit of the ACSSS, a small satellite attached to a giant solar sail. About this reported on the website of the American aerospace agency.
WHAT IS ACSSS?
We are talking about the Advanced Composite Solar Sail System (ACSSS) project — that is, "advanced composite solar sails."
It is based on a 12U cubesat (i.e. consisting of 12 cubic sections, each 10 cm long), developed by NanoAvionics. The device does not have an independent scientific or practical task - scientists are primarily interested in how it will function in a duet with the main structural element - a giant sail.
ACSSS is equipped with four seven-meter "masts" (they are jibs), between which the sail itself will unfold. The masts, made of flexible polymer and carbon fibers, are telescopic: when folded, according to NASA engineer Alan Rhodes, seven-meter booms can fit in your hand.
HOW DOES THE SOLAR SAIL WORK?
Solar sails use the pressure of sunlight for propulsion: when tilted towards or away from the Sun, photons bounce off the sail and thus propel it forward.
Such technology is an alternative (but still mostly theoretical) to heavy propulsion systems and, as engineers hope, can become the basis for longer and less expensive missions.
"Throwers were typically either heavy and metal, or made of a lightweight composite with a bulky design - neither of which are suitable for today's small spacecraft, - said researcher Keats Wilkie from the NASA center in the city of Langley. — Solar sails require very large, stable and light booms that can be folded compactly. The booms of this sail have the shape of a pipe and can be flattened and rolled like a tape measure to small volumes.
WHAT ARE THE MISSION PLANS?
The launch took place back in April. The Electron rocket of the private company Rocket Lab went into space from the spaceport in New Zealand: in addition to the ACSSS, the South Korean NEONSAT-1 satellite was also on board.
Later, the device was launched into an orbit at a height of a thousand kilometers, where the first checks began before the deployment of the sail. All four "petals" of the structure were successfully deployed last week.
Over the next few weeks, the team will test the sail's maneuverability in space and try to understand whether the technology can provide enough thrust for future space travel.
Now the space "sailboat" is at an altitude that is approximately twice the distance from the Earth of the ISS orbit. From above, the sail looks like a giant square of 80 square meters - about half the size of a tennis court.
NASA said that if you guessed the right time and lighting conditions, the sail could be seen from Earth.
The ACSSS mission is strictly a demonstration mission, and its purpose is to understand whether solar sail technology is suitable for other larger projects.
If the technology proves to be effective, then in the future a similar design can be used with sails with an area of up to 2 square meters, which is roughly the size of half a football field.
"The sun will continue to burn for billions of years, so we have an infinite source of motion, said Alan Rhodes. — Instead of launching huge fuel tanks for future missions, we can build larger sails that use the fuel we already have.”
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