A new milepost for blank exploration has been achieved . Currently about 720 kilometers ( 450 miles ) over our heads , LightSail 2 hasdeployed its solar sailand is using the soft but steady push of sunshine to maneuver around our major planet .
The crowdfunded project grow by the Planetary Society was launched last calendar month on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket . As announce on Twitter , the sheet was successfully deployed on July 23 . The motor call for about 12 minutes to release the 32 - solid - meter ( 344 - straight - foot ) sail . It is now being used by its loaf - sized spacecraft attached to glide to higher domain .
The delegation is expected to last for about a calendar month . With the service of photon from the Sun , the sail will pull the craft to a gamey electron orbit , gaining C of metre every mean solar day . The Planetary Society wants to march that solar sail are a legitimate style to prompt small-scale satellites around .
“ We ’re very excited to be past this huge milepost , ” said Chief Operating Officer Jennifer Vaughn during thedeployment live stream . “ We now get going the very difficult process of sweep in space . ”
Solar canvass technology works by creating large but abstemious anatomical structure that can sense the pressure of sunshine . The canvass of LightSail 2 is as big as two parking space but only 4.5 micrometer thick , thinner than a filament in a wanderer ’s web . Its slenderness makes it very delicate . The team designed the sail with seam placed every few inch , so if micrometeoroid and small space debris do remove it , the rakehell wo n’t scatter across the whole sail .
That state , LightSail 2 is not designed to last . It is still a technology guide mission , and the area - raise monstrance is travel to be the literal end of the slyness . As one side of the orbit increases , the other side decreases , which will eventually take LightSail 2 near enough to the atmosphere for it to crash and burn up .
The technology for this is not new . LightSail 1 successfully exhibit the same overture at a much low orbit ( and without moving much ) and the Japanese mission IKAROS was the first to show that solar sail actuation can be used to travel between planets when it arrived at Venus in 2010 .
Several missions with solar sails are being planned , including NASA ’s NEOScout and Breakthrough Starshot , and Japan ’s OKEANOS . Meanwhile , the Planetary Society will bear on with their orbital solar cruise design .
