LightSail 2 solar sail is still soaring above Earth more than two years after launch
Words by Tereza Pultarova An experimental spacecraft testing solar sails as a means of cost-effective space propulsion that could power future missions to distant places is still riding the sunbeams in Earth’s orbit more than two-and-ahalf years after its launch. The spacecraft is a cubesat about the size of a loaf of bread, fitted with a solar sail the size of a boxing ring, or about 32 square metres (433 square feet). This sail captures incoming photons from the Sun, just as a wind sail catches the moving air, to propel the spacecraft.
LightSail 2 is a private project of the Planetary Society, a US-headquartered space education and outreach nonprofit organisation. But the results of the experiment have already informed the design of upcoming NASA missions such as Near-Earth Asteroid Scout, Solar Cruiser and the Advanced Composite Solar Sail System. NEA Scout, one of the ‘passengers’ on NASA’s upcoming Moonbound Artemis 1 mission, will use the solar propulsion technology to leave the Moon’s orbit and visit a nearEarth asteroid.