The Planetary Society ’s LightSail 2 is a winner of the2024 Gizmodo Science Fairfor testing the feasibility of using photons from the Sun as a phase of propulsion for satellite .
The question
Can solar seafaring in effect propel and steer diminished spacecraft , and can it be done in a blue - cost , eco - favorable manner ?
The results
The Planetary Society’sLightSail 2launched in June 2019 , unfurling its 344 - straight - foot ( 32 - straight - m ) solar sail a calendar month after . Solar sails get photons from the Sun the way a traditional sail catches the wind , creating diminished burst of momentum that incite the space vehicle . If such a space vehicle can overwhelm Earth ’s atmospheric drag , it has the potential to reach very high altitudes .
LightSail 2 was a crowdfunded project , with The Planetary Society raising $ 1.24 million in donations from blank fancier to assist make it happen . The spacecraft carried a disk with names , selfies , and other messages from its fan for the duration of its flight of steps .
The spacecraft itself was the size of a shoebox , with its cruise made from mylar sailcloth tucked neatly together . When unfurled , the canvass were about the size of it of a boxing mob .
LightSail 2 completed 18,000 orbits around Earth before burning up in atmospheric reentry.Image: The Planetary Society
Just two weeks after entering solar sailing mode , LightSail 2 realize 2 miles ( 3.2 kilometers ) of altitude , making this experiment a succeeder . “ We were able to demonstrate free burning increase in our orbit ALT . We grow it about 800 metre , I believe , over that month - long timeframe , ” said David Spencer , LightSail undertaking manager and mission organization manager for NASA ’s Mars Sample Return Campaign .
Throughout its mission , LightSail 2 enjoyed literal highs and David Low . The orbiter would sometimes mislay a few beat of altitude per day , while other fourth dimension gaining a few meters . It smash into atmospherical particles as it traveled at speeds give 20,000 mil per minute ( 32,000 km / hr ) , causing the spacecraft to slacken down . After a couple of years voyage around Earth , the experimental gadget began to get a steep fall in altitude , primarily due to atmospheric drag .
“ It take some of the more subtle affair to be capable to actually see to it the spacecraft , ” Spencer tell . “ We figured out that our attitude control system had some preconception to it , and we had to model that over time and update the escape software package degree to change that . ”
© Vicky Leta/Gizmodo
“ That allowed us to really do our best solar sailing of the mission two years into the deputation , which is interesting because our orbit had come down quite a bit , ” he sum .
In November 2022,LightSail 2 reentered and burned up in Earth ’s air , ending its presentation in dramatic fashion . In totality , it completed 18,000 orbits and go 5 million miles ( 8 million klick ) .
Why they did it
The idea of solar sailing was first imagined more than 400 years ago , when German astronomer Johannes Kepler observed a comet and wonder what had caused it to develop a bum of material that trailed behind it across the sky . It was sunlight itself that was pushing on the comet ’s dust corpuscle , get them to scatter . Kepler believed that a space sheet could one day capture the Sun ’s ray the same agency a sauceboat canvass use the idle words .
“ Light is crowd on all of us the right way now , it ’s just this little teeny flyspeck bit of impulse that ’s conveyed by the photons of light , ” tell Bruce Betts , principal scientist and LightSail program manager for The Planetary Society . “ If you ’re in the vacancy of space and you deploy a really prominent , shiny sail , and you have a lowly - mass ballistic capsule , then you may harness that energy and use it to sail on the radiation pressure from sun . ”
One of the founders of The Planetary Society , Louis Friedman , developed a personal sake in solar sailing . The system begin developing the technology in the early 2000s with the help of the Russian space agency , lead them to build up the first solar sheet , Cosmos 1 . However , the solar canvas was lose in a Russian rocket failure in 2005 . “ The spacecraft never made it to place . We never knew what happened with that original solar sail , ” tell Jennifer Vaughn , master operating officer of The Planetary Society . “ From that conception , and from the momentum that had already been built , we said , allow ’s try again , let ’s build something on our own — and that was the veridical birth of the idea of what became LightSail . ”
LightSail 1 establish in May 2015 and was set in low Earth cranial orbit , but it encountered several problems . A software glitch caused the initial solar sail deployment attempt to fail . Although LightSail 1 finally managed to unfurl its canvas , atmospheric drag had already take its bell , keep the spacecraft from sail across orbit as intended . The missionendedwith the spacecraft ’s re - entry on June 15 , 2015 .
The squad wanted to give it another go , this meter pairing cubesat technology ( which was still emerging at the time ) with solar sails . “ The chance for us was , we think , can we partner cubesat technologies and easy sail technology as a actuation method acting ? ” Vaughn said . “ So that was the new big estimate around LightSail 2 : Can we establish something that we can really control in place ? ”
Thus , LightSail 2 was expect . The spacecraft succeeded in using sunlight alone to exchange its scope , without the want for an railway locomotive or pusher . Unlike chemic Eruca vesicaria sativa that bring forth small bursts of momentum , solar sheet provide uninterrupted , svelte jabbing that can build up to high f number over time . What ’s more , conventional spacecraft must sway propellants to orbit ( which means more system of weights and cost ) , while sunlight is unlimited and free .
“ Solar sails are one of the few technologies that can grant a spacecraft to get to the outer orbit of our solar organisation , or even go interstellar , on a timeline that is consistent with the human life-time , ” Spencer say .
Why they’re a winner
Solar sailing is base on a simple idea , harnessing the mail boat of energy produced by light and using them to propel spacecraft forward . Its execution , however , is a lot more complicated , which make believe LightSail 2 ’s achievements so telling .
The impulse that the spacecraft does get from the Sun is very small , so it is extremely thought-provoking to surmount up , and atmospheric drag is always work against that progress . “ I guess it was more challenging that I require , personally , ” Spencer said . “ We had to get the best some of these challenges to be capable to see that sustained sphere raise over prison term . ”
The team was working with a “ shoestring budget , ” as they describe it . “ It was our bounteous project ever , but it was small in terminal figure of resources available to it , ” Betts said . “ It was smashing once we got it up there and it kept surviving . ”
What’s next
LightSail 2 may have burn up in Earth ’s atmosphere , but its legacy has inspired several other missions , includingNASA ’s NEA Scoutmission to a near - Earth asteroid , NASA ’s Advanced Composite Solar Sail Systemto test out sail boom cloth in Earth orbit , andNASA ’s Solar Cruiser(scheduled for a 2025 launching ) .
As it stands , however , LightSail 2 will not have a replacement of its own . The squad behind the delegacy is hanging up its solar sail , with no plans for a LightSail 3 mission . But other exciting missions are likely ahead , as The Planetary Society puts out a call for proposal every other year , search for new innovative ideas to put to the test .
The team
Bruce Betts , LightSail program manager ; David Spencer , LightSail 2 labor manager ; Jennifer Vaughn , chief operating officer of The Planetary Society .
Click here to see all of thewinners of the 2024 Gizmodo Science Fair .
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