Suara.com – NASA planning to test technology solar screen new in outer space in the middle of next year.
Advanced Composite Solar Sail System (ACS3) The space agency will deploy the apartment-sized solar sail of the cubesat in Earth’s orbit by mid-2022.
Such sails have previously been used in space, most recently in the Planetary Society’s LightSail 2 mission.
“Just like a sailboat that is propelled by the wind, a solar sail uses the pressure of light Sun for propulsion, eliminating the need for conventional rocket propellant,” NASA officials wrote in a June 23 statement.
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The data gathered from this new mission will inform the design of future, larger-scale systems that can be used for asteroid search.
In addition, monitoring the activity of the Sun, or powering the communications systems of astronauts in space.
Reported from Space.com, Friday (2/7/2021), this new mission will feature the deployment of a “composite boom” solar screen that features lightweight and durable materials.
NASA says the composite boom technology can support a screen about the size of a basketball court or about 500 square meters.
The technology, developed at NASA’s Langley Research Center, is made from a carbon fiber-reinforced polymer material.
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This material makes it 75 percent lighter than standard metal and much less susceptible to heat warping.
While still in its early stages, the potential benefits of the technology include a longer mission life.
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