LightSail Satellites

LightSail
LightSail
LightSail
LightSail
LightSail
LightSail
Satellite LightSail
Form factor CubeSat
Units or mass 3U
Organization The Planetary Society
Institution Non-profit
Entity Academic / Education
Country US
Partners Aerospace Corporation, Stellar Exploration Systems, California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly), Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech)
Oneliner

Demonstrate the deployment of a 32 m2 solar sail from a 3-unit CubeSat platform.

Description

Demonstrate the deployment of a 32 m2 solar sail from a 3-unit CubeSat platform. Following deployment from the launch vehicle, LightSail will power on engineering subsystems, and a system checkout will be performed. It is anticipated that solar sail deployment will occur approximately two weeks after launch.

Following sail deployment, engineering telemetry and imaging of the sail deployment event will be downlinked. LightSail-3 will go to the Sun-Earth Libration Point, L1, where solar sails could be permanently placed as solar weather stations.

Sources [1] [2]
Photo sources [1]
Keywords Solar sail, Propulsion

Related Spacecraft

Spacecraft Status Rocket Launch Orbit
LightSail-A (LightSail 1) Reentry 2015-06-15. Was operational until 2015-06-11. Various problems, but did deploy solar sail. Atlas V 2015-05-20 360 x 700 km, 55 deg
LightSail 2 (LightSail-B, LightSail-2) Reentry 2022-11-19. Was operational (Rocket Lab post on Twitter on 2022-03-17. SmallSat 2023 presentation.) Falcon Heavy 2019-06-25 710 km, 24 deg
LightSail-C (LightSail-3) cancelled (No plans for follow-on mission as per Kickstarter comments in 2019) cancelled x_cancelled Sun-Earth Libration Point L1

Last modified: 2024-05-29

Feel free to connect at any time.

Created by Erik Kulu

Email: erik.kulu@nanosats.eu
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/erikkulu

Social Platforms

LinkedIn: Nanosats
Twitter: @nanosatellites

Sister Websites

NewSpace Index: newspace.im
Factories in Space: factoriesinspace.com

Copyright © 2014 - 2024 Erik Kulu

/td> Falcon Heavy 2019-06-25 710 km, 24 deg LightSail-C (LightSail-3) cancelled (No plans for follow-on mission as per Kickstarter comments in 2019) cancelled x_cancelled Sun-Earth Libration Point L1

Last modified: 2024-05-29

Feel free to connect at any time.

Created by Erik Kulu

Email: erik.kulu@nanosats.eu
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/erikkulu

Social Platforms

LinkedIn: Nanosats
Twitter: @nanosatellites

Sister Websites

NewSpace Index: newspace.im
Factories in Space: factoriesinspace.com

Copyright © 2014 - 2024 Erik Kulu