LightSail Arrives in Florida; More Launch Details Revealed
Hello
reader!
It follows
an article published on (03/09), in the website of “The Planetary Society”, noting
that LightSail arrives in Florida and more launch details was revealed.
Duda
Falcão
Mission
status, LightSail
LightSail
Arrives in Florida;
More Launch Details Revealed
Posted by Jason Davis
2015/03/09 21:32 UTC
A cadre of CubeSats
including The Planetary Society’s LightSail spacecraft completed a
cross-country journey from California to Florida, where they await installation
as a secondary payload aboard an Atlas V rocket. NASA and the U.S. Air Force
also released the nomenclature of the rocket’s primary and secondary payloads,
and a preliminary launch date has been set for May 6.
LightSail, a 3-unit
CubeSat about the size of a loaf of bread, is a part of a flock of spacecraft
dubbed ULTRASat. ULTRASat contains an array of Poly-Picosatellite Orbital
Deployers, or P-PODS, which are used to spring CubeSats into space. LightSail
and its P-POD were integrated to ULTRASat at the Naval Postgraduate School in
Monterey, Calif. on Jan. 22. ULTRASat has now shipped to Cape Canaveral, where
it will be
attached to the Atlas V.
The launch date is
currently listed as no earlier than May 6. The rocket’s primary payload is
designated AFSPC-5, an acronym that stands for Air Force Space Command.
Photo: Naval Postgraduate
School
LightSail is flying
under the banner of NASA’s Educational Launch of Nanosatellites program—ELaNa.
This iteration of the program is ELaNa XI, and LightSail is the only ELaNamember booking a ride aboard ULTRASat. The May flight is a shakedown cruise
designed to test LightSail’s systems ahead of a full-fledged solar sailing
demonstration in 2016.
The Planetary Society
is finalizing a web dashboard that will display LightSail’s ground track and
telemetry data. The data will include temperature readings, power levels and
rotation rates as LightSail soars around the globe, stabilizing itself using Earth’s magnetic field.
While LightSail will
not be visible to the naked eye during its four-week checkout phase, it may be
viewable from some locations around dawn and dusk after the sails are deployed.
Visitors to the LightSail dashboard will receive predictions on when the
spacecraft will be visible from their location. However, due to atmospheric
drag, the 2015 test mission is expected to end just two to ten days after sail
deployment.
In honor
of our May 2015 test flight, we've released a brand new
LightSail
website.The project's new home includes spacecraft details,
a
mutli-part history series, and a multimedia gallery.
Meanwhile,
work progresses on the Society’s second LightSail spacecraft, dubbed
LightSail-B, which will fly to a circular, 720-kilometer orbit in 2016—high
enough to demonstrate controlled solar sailing and create more viewing
opportunities. LightSail-B will be paired with Prox-1, a small Georgia Tech
spacecraft designed to demonstrate automated rendezvous and inspection
techniques.
The lessons learned while preparing for the LightSail test
mission are already being applied to LightSail-B. Currently planned
improvements include radio upgrades, new stiffener brackets and additional
mirrors that will be used for ground-based laser ranging. These upgrades are
being performed by Ecliptic Enterprises Corporation, the project’s prime
contractor. Additionally, the second LightSail spacecraft will use a momentum
wheel and sun sensors to tack like a sailboat, allowing to turn toward and away
from the sun’s continual stream of photons.
Photo: Naval
Postgraduate School
Fonte: Website
“The Planetary Society” - http://www.planetary.org/
Comentário:
Pois é leitor, este projeto é fantástico, pois testará
em voo uma das formas possíveis de propulsão espacial que poderá no futuro
levar cubesats além da órbita terrestre, coisa que os japoneses há cerca de
dois anos já testaram com sucesso no espaço e que nos EUA, além da The Planetery
Society, a própria NASA e várias universidades já trabalham em missões lunares
com cubesats com este tipo de propulsão. Fantástico, isto sim que é um programa
espacial de verdade e promissor. Isto sim que é inovação, isto sim que é apostar no futuro. Aproveitamos
para agradecer ao Dr. Otávio Durão pelo envio deste artigo.
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