LightSail-A

Spacecraft nº:

US spacecraft nº:

Launch data: Designation  40661 / 15025L Launch date  20 May 2015 - 15:05 UT Launch site  CC, SLC-41 Launch vehicle  Atlas V-501 Mission  Technology Earth orbit: Perigee / Apogee  350? x 700? km Eccentricity   Inclination  55? ° Period   min

Spacecraft data: Prime manufacturer  The Planetary Society Platform  CubeSat (3U) Operator  The Planetary Society Mass at launch  5 kg Dry Mass   kg Basic shape   Dimension (m)   Equipment  Solar sail Solar array  4 deployable fixed solar arrays Stabilization   Propulsion  None DC power   Beacon details  437.435 MHz, FSK AX.25 9600 bps, 15 sec period Design lifetime

Lightsail before deployment. Credit: The Planetary Society

End of live:

Description:

• LightSail, developed by The Planetary Society, will demonstrate that sunlight alone can propel a spacecraft in Earth orbit. It is a follow up mission to the failed Cosmos 1 project.
• Taking advantage of the technological advances in micro- and nano-spacecraft over the past five years, The Planetary Society will build LightSail based on a 3 Unit Cubesat spacecraft. One unit will form the central electronics and control module, and two additional units will house the solar sail module. Cameras, additional sensors, and a control system will be added to the basic Cubesat electronics bus.
• LightSail will have four triangular sails, arranged in a diamond shape resembling a giant kite. Constructed of 32 square meters of mylar, LightSail will be placed in an orbit over 800 kilometers above Earth, high enough to escape the drag of Earth’s uppermost atmosphere. At that altitude the spacecraft will be subject only to the force of gravity keeping it in orbit and the pressure of sunlight on its sails increasing the orbital energy. The mission will give a good, clean trial of sunlight as a means of propulsion.

Mission details:

• LightSail-A was launched on May 20, 2015 in a low earth orbit to verify the deployment of the sail, although in this orbit the atmospherical drag prevents solar sailing. LightSail-A suffered a software problem after two days, causing the computer to freeze. As it did not respond to reboot commands, it was hoped, that a random radiation induced reboot might solve the problem.
• The LightSail-1 cubesat went into safemode a few days after launch but rebooted on May 30. Its solar panels were deployed on Jun 3, 2015 and the solar sail was unfurled on Jun 7 at 19:47 UTC. The satellite reentered the atmosphere on 15 June 2015 after 25 days on orbit.