NASA to deploy solar sail from nanosat

[redrover]

NASA will attempt to deploy a solar sail in orbit from a modified Cubesat.http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=28440. I hope they succeed: the Cosmos 1 failure was a big dissapointment for me.

 

[Missioncmdr]

Sounds like good news. Hope the Falcon 1 rocket actually works this time. It would be nice to see a successful solar sail mission.

 

[Danny Ramone]

Would be great if it works. I suppose NASA have been putting off trying solar sales as Its a huge expenditure on launch and machine if the sail doesn't work. Proving this could change space exploration quite drastically.

 

[Danny Ramone]

Additionally the de-orbit sail would be awesome, slow a craft right down for re-entry without using heaps of fuel. ( i guess similar to how SpaceShipOne feathers its wings to re-enter.

 

[Mafuskas]

Interesting to hear about this. Does anyone know how much they plan to change their orbit using the solar sails?

 

[Master of Blades]

Additionally the de-orbit sail would be awesome, slow a craft right down for re-entry without using heaps of fuel. ( i guess similar to how SpaceShipOne feathers its wings to re-enter.

I've always thought that SS1 feathers it wings during re-entry, to increase drag in order to slow down, rather than do deorbit...

 

[thomasantony]

Additionally the de-orbit sail would be awesome, slow a craft right down for re-entry without using heaps of fuel. ( i guess similar to how SpaceShipOne feathers its wings to re-enter.

Actually re-entry doesn't use much fuel. The de-orbit burn itself is a short one, to just cause the orbit to intersect with the atmosphere at the correct angle. You dont have to burn away all your orbital velocity.

~
Thomas

 

[Andy44]

De-orbit generally requires something on the order of 100 m/s delta-V, which is not trivial for a solar sail, but if you can control your attitude you should be able cause a de-orbit after a few orbits.

Spaceship One doesn't reach orbit, so there is no de-orbit. The feather technique increases the surface area of the fuselage facing into the relative wind in order to maintain high drag and a low airspeed in order to reduce hull heating during re-entry.