LIGHTSAIL Solar Sailing Spacecraft

by Mollie Collings

40 years ago

• The late astronomer Carl Sagan proposed a spacecraft propelled only

by the sun

5…4…3…2…1…BLAST OFF

May 2015 the LightSail hitched a ride aboard Altas V rocket

• Testing the sail deployment sequence

• Snapping pictures

*currently the LightSail has been unable to send pictures back but data looks

good

On May 20, 2015, our first LightSail prototype launched from Cape Canaveral aboard an Atlas

V rocket.

What’s Next?In 2016 LightSail will be released into orbit

447 miles above Earth

Communicating with ground stations

Sending back photos

LightSail will be with another spacecraft called Prox-1 taking

images

The LightSail’s core is called a CubeSat

What is a CubeSat? A cube-shaped satellite

Measures 4x4x4 inches (10x10x10 centimeters). You can hold one in the palm of your hand.

They weigh roughly a

couple of pounds

Can be clustered together launching several at a time.

The Mylar sail is folded and tucked in the bottom of the CubeSat - just a quarter the thickness of a trash bag – will span

more than 345 square

LIGHTSAIL TEAM MEMBERS PREPARE THE SPACECRAFT FOR A

SAIL DEPLOYMENT TEST.

Solar sails use the sun’s energy as a method of propulsion - flight by

light.  Light is made of packets of energy called

photons

a photon traveling as a packet of light has energy and momentum.

The photons reflect off the sail, transferring momentum

LightSail is a citizen-funded project by The Planetary Society, a non-

profit  organization devoted to space exploration

BILL NYE, CEO OF THE PLANETARY SOCIETY