14 replies to this topic

[scottmm2012]

Hmmmm....

http://www.planetary...jUARCEghFAv42qk

 

Last sentence of the article:
 

LightSail 2 may be visible to the naked eye after solar sail deployment. Once the sails are out, we will post a dashboard at sail.planetary.org offering pass predictions for your location.

 

[t_image]

Lightsail 1 lasted less than one month and had a whole bunch of problems. It was saved by a lucky cosmic ray strike.

 

Other kickstarter shiny things also failed:

http://www.arrl.org/...-deploying-sail

 

https://www.dailymai...ploy-orbit.html

 

 

 

 

 

The big event will be the successful SpaceX heavy rocket upper stage delivery.

[CounterWeight]

Interesting, thanks for posting in about this. I'm a bit skeptical about it but you never know ?  Watching the boosters land will be amazing (at least to me) and impressive.

[BillP]

For me no big deal that it might be visible in the night time sky.  Reason is that this is not some stupid art project or appreciation endeavor.  Instead it is a proof-of-concept mission to see if sails can be used for controlled propulsion of CubeSats.  The mission is designed so as not to be able to overcome atmospheric drag so at most it will last 6 months.  This is actually a useful crowdsourced project.

[ilovecomets]

As a long time Planetary Society member I’m very excited for tomorrow night’s launch.  Here’s hoping for a successful launch and mission.

[CounterWeight]

Just read this this morning, sounds like off to a good start.  LINK

[PXR-5]

Also a long time Planetary Society member I also have been closely following this I even have the T shirt

[CounterWeight]

Has anyone downloaded the 'dashboard' to look at the mission activity?  I have not done so, but it sounds interesting like the mars weather conx from NASA, to me it's great they are putting up these public portals.

 

I just followed one link and it's great what they have up on the web, at leas I feel a nice presentation.  If I understand correctly they are going to unfurl the sail in the next day or two.

Edited by CounterWeight, 07 July 2019 - 09:20 PM.

[CounterWeight]

Came across this while checking for any news, the team will wait for sail deployment until further testing is completed, any issues straightened out, and now sail deployment forecast for the 21st.  LINK

[CounterWeight]

Sail up and now for the difficult part.

[CounterWeight]

According to the articles i am reading, it has now been deemed a success!  LINK Way to go!  Info being forwarded to NASA and others for follow on missions incorporating the technology.

[BillP]

According to the articles i am reading, it has now been deemed a success!  LINK Way to go!  Info being forwarded to NASA and others for follow on missions incorporating the technology.

 

[scottmm2012]

I heard the sail successfully changed the orbit of the lightsail, however...the Apogee was higher but the perigee was lower and the average was lower then where it started.  Not sure if I would call that a success.  Granted it proved in theory that a photon sail could be used to move a spacecraft, albeit a light one.

[ilovecomets]

I heard the sail successfully changed the orbit of the lightsail, however...the Apogee was higher but the perigee was lower and the average was lower then where it started.  Not sure if I would call that a success.  Granted it proved in theory that a photon sail could be used to move a spacecraft, albeit a light one.

That’s basically happening because they don’t have the ability to change the position of the sail throughout it’s orbit.  This was intentional as this is just a proof of concept.  It also serves the purpose of deorbiting the satellite after a period of time.  There is enough junk up there already.

[llanitedave]

I heard the sail successfully changed the orbit of the lightsail, however...the Apogee was higher but the perigee was lower and the average was lower then where it started.  Not sure if I would call that a success.  Granted it proved in theory that a photon sail could be used to move a spacecraft, albeit a light one.

Of course it's a success.  The orbital changes are just what were predicted prior to the mission.  That means the light sail is behaving as expected.