NASA reveals technical problem during solar sail deployment of test mission
NASA today revealed that a technical problem occurred during the deployment of a demonstration solar sail mission launched in April on Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket.
Upon an initial attempt to unfurl, the solar sail paused when an onboard power monitor detected higher than expected motor currents. Communications, power, and attitude control for the spacecraft all remain normal while mission managers work to understand and resolve the cause of the interruption by analyzing data from the spacecraft.
The goal had been test the boom deployment of a 860 square foot sail from a cubesat only about 4 feet in size.
The concept of the solar sail is simple: Use the pressure produced by sunlight to maneuver and fly controlled throughout the solar system. The idea has been tested successfully several times, with the Japanese IKAROS test solar sail and the Planetary Society’s Lightsail-2 the most successful. Sadly almost all other attempts to test this idea have had technical problems of one kind or another.
Ironically, one test solar sail proved that such a deployment from a cubesat could be done very cheaply, unlike NASA’s effort above. Brown University students in 2023 used cheap off-the-shelf parts to launch a smallsat sail that successfully deployed and was then used to lower the satellite’s orbit in order to de-orbit it more quickly. Total cost, $10,000. And it worked.
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NASA today revealed that a technical problem occurred during the deployment of a demonstration solar sail mission launched in April on Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket.
Upon an initial attempt to unfurl, the solar sail paused when an onboard power monitor detected higher than expected motor currents. Communications, power, and attitude control for the spacecraft all remain normal while mission managers work to understand and resolve the cause of the interruption by analyzing data from the spacecraft.
The goal had been test the boom deployment of a 860 square foot sail from a cubesat only about 4 feet in size.
The concept of the solar sail is simple: Use the pressure produced by sunlight to maneuver and fly controlled throughout the solar system. The idea has been tested successfully several times, with the Japanese IKAROS test solar sail and the Planetary Society’s Lightsail-2 the most successful. Sadly almost all other attempts to test this idea have had technical problems of one kind or another.
Ironically, one test solar sail proved that such a deployment from a cubesat could be done very cheaply, unlike NASA’s effort above. Brown University students in 2023 used cheap off-the-shelf parts to launch a smallsat sail that successfully deployed and was then used to lower the satellite’s orbit in order to de-orbit it more quickly. Total cost, $10,000. And it worked.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
That’s the problem—packing things in too tight in too small a rocket.
I’d bet that, among the Brown students who designed and built the successful solar sail, you’d find at least one who had had some experience working as crew on a racing yacht. The NASA team, on the other hand, I would just as strongly expect to be entirely landlubbers.
Update 8/29:
Colleagues,
Today, the NASA Langley-developed composite booms and solar sails were successfully deployed on-orbit as a part of the Advanced Composite Solar Sail System (ACS3) mission. I want to congratulate the NASA Langley team on the successful demonstration of this new technology. I also would like to congratulate our colleagues and partners in the Small Spacecraft Technology program office at NASA Ames who managed the ACS3 project. This mission has been years in the making, with a number of hurdles to overcome — right up to these successful, exciting moments of deployment. The team’s creativity, dedication and perseverance have been essential to its success.
The launch of ACS3 took place from New Zealand on April 23 with the primary objective of unfurling the solar sails, which were designed, developed, and tested at NASA Langley. Now, about 600 miles above Earth those composite booms have unrolled and stretched out the sail segments—a shiny, 860-square-foot spacecraft catching photons and using the power of sunlight to provide propulsion. We look forward to the next milestone when the booms are maneuvered, and the sail is angled to adjust the spacecraft’s orbit.
Solar sail technology can be an important tool for future science and exploration missions by using the free and limitless energy of the Sun to take us to new corners of the solar system. I am excited to see where is leads us next.
Again, our heartiest congratulations to our incredible team. Thank you for a job well done!
Kevin Kempton: You appear to be part of the team for this project. Can you direct me to any specific official post providing a full update?