Cosmos 1

Russia

International Sat. n°:

Russian satellite n°:

Launch data:

Designation 05F02
Launch date 21 Jun 2005 - 19:46:09 UT
Launch site Borisoglebsk, Barents Sea
Launch vehicle  Volna TPS(Version 1st flight)
Mission Solar sail technology
Decay 21 Jun 2005

Failed to reach orbit.

Launch configuration [Cosmos Studios]

Spacecraft data:

Prime contractor  Babakin Space Center (NPO Lavochkin)
Operator Planetary Society and Cosmos Studies in the United States.
Platform  
Mass at launch  103 kg
Dry Mass  kg
Basic shape  
Dimension  
Stabilization  

Deployed [Cosmos Studios]


Description:

The purpose of the mission is to conduct the first solar sail flight. Solar sailing is recognized as a future planetary flight technology on the pathway to interstellar flight (using laser instead of solar photons). The image products and story of the mission will be publicly available through the marketing of Cosmos Studios and The Planetary Society.

The project was initiated September 15, 2000. A sub-orbital test flight of the inflatable tube sail deployment system was conducted on July 20, 2001. The spacecraft was launched from a submerged Russian submarine in the Barents Sea on a Volna, a converted submarine-launched ICBM now being marketed for commercial use. Unfortunately the spacecraft failed to separate from the third stage of the rocket, and as a result the sails and the reentry capsule failed to deploy. The capsule continued on its ballistic flight to the Kamchatka peninsula, but has not been recovered so far.

The approximately 100 kg spacecraft will be injected into a near circular 800 km orbit with an inclination to the Earth's equator of 78 degrees. Injection into orbit will be carried out by a TPS motor, adapted from a motor previously used for de-orbiting of payloads from Earth orbit. The principal data products from the mission will be imaging, although there will be on-board accelerometers to measure the non-gravitational force on the spacecraft. Two imaging systems will be used, one Russian developed, the other being developed in the US. Tracking and telemetry will be Russian responsibilities although US backups are being considered. An S-band and UHF-band telemetry system will be employed.

The basic deployment and structural technology relies on an inflatable tube system to which the sail material will be attached. The 600 square meter sail will be configured in eight roughly triangular blades. The nominal sail material is 5 micron aluminized, reinforced mylar.

Mission success is defined as flying long enough to measurably increase the orbital energy (or period) from sunlight pressure in controlled flight.

Mission details:

Research satellite, launched to prove the technology of using solar radiation to manoeuvre a satellite in orbit. Satellite to be operated by the Planetary Society and Cosmos Studies in the Unitied States. Mass quoted above includes an apogee motor which would have placed the payload into an initial 78 deg, 850 km orbit. Maiden orbital attempt of Volna. It was launched from the K-496 Borisoglebsk submarine and 83 seconds into the flight, the first and second stages failed to separate. The launch vehicle and payload probably crashed about 160 seconds after launch.
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