Date: 2/08/2019 14:58:01
From: PermeateFree
ID: 1418158
Subject: Lightsail 2 makes history by using sunlight to propel itself onto a new orbital path

>>It appears to be all smooth sailing for The Planetary Society’s LightSail 2, with the history-making CubeSat now propelling itself through space on sunlight alone. The nonprofit announced today that after unfurling its solar sail last week, the tiny spacecraft has successfully leveraged photons from the Sun to shift its trajectory in Earth orbit, a landmark moment in the history of space exploration.

The objective of its mission is to demonstrate the solar sailing potential for CubeSats, which are smaller and simpler spacecraft that therefore keep the costs of delivering payloads to space to a minimum. In LightSail 2’s case, it is around the same size as a loaf of bread, which doesn’t leave much room for propulsion systems, only the boxing-ring-sized solar sail that it deployed last week.<<

https://newatlas.com/lightsail-2-makes-history-orbital-path/60852/

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Date: 2/08/2019 19:40:40
From: mollwollfumble
ID: 1418240
Subject: re: Lightsail 2 makes history by using sunlight to propel itself onto a new orbital path

PermeateFree said:


>>It appears to be all smooth sailing for The Planetary Society’s LightSail 2, with the history-making CubeSat now propelling itself through space on sunlight alone. The nonprofit announced today that after unfurling its solar sail last week, the tiny spacecraft has successfully leveraged photons from the Sun to shift its trajectory in Earth orbit, a landmark moment in the history of space exploration.

The objective of its mission is to demonstrate the solar sailing potential for CubeSats, which are smaller and simpler spacecraft that therefore keep the costs of delivering payloads to space to a minimum. In LightSail 2’s case, it is around the same size as a loaf of bread, which doesn’t leave much room for propulsion systems, only the boxing-ring-sized solar sail that it deployed last week.<<

https://newatlas.com/lightsail-2-makes-history-orbital-path/60852/

> Over the past four days, the spacecraft has lifted its orbital high point by around 2 km.

Good. I wasn’t expecting a positive result so soon.

> it is around the same size as a loaf of bread … the boxing-ring-sized solar sail

Fitting a boxing ring into a loaf of bread is quite a feat.

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