NASA said it is working to resolve the issue with its first solar sail spacecraft. In an update, the agency said that it is analysing the performance of the spacecraft’s composite booms which got bent during deployment and is now affecting the orientation.
The solar sail spacecraft basically includes a shoebox-sized satellite that deploys the booms and these booms in turn unfurl a massive but thin film. In this mission involving the Advanced Composite Solar Sail System (AC3S), the booms successfully deployed the sails on August 29 increasing the size of the spacecraft equivalent to half a tennis court.
MISSION UPDATE: Advanced Composite Solar Sail System mission operators continue to analyze data from the spacecraft and characterize the performance of its composite booms following successful deployment.
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The spacecraft is being used to test the solar sail technology to use sunlight as a propellant. The AC3S is currently in a 1000 km Earth orbit being propelled by sunlight, similar to how winds push a ship in the waters.
But it seems things are not going smoothly for NASA.
“While the solar sail has fully extended to its square shape roughly half the size of a tennis court, the mission team is assessing what appears to be a slight bend in one of the four booms,” the agency said in a statement.
ALSO SEE: NASA Just Unfurled Its Giant Solar Sail System In Space, It’s The Size Of A Tennis Court
While NASA revealed that the data gathered since the sail deployment is proving to highly valuable, it added, “The mission team predicts the slight bend in one of the four booms will not inhibit the Advanced Composite Solar Sail System’s ability to execute its sailing maneuvers later in the technology demonstration.”
NASA explained that maintaining attitude of a spacecraft, meaning its orientation relative to another object, is important for proper communication or charging a craft’s batteries using solar energy.
“Now, mission operators are working to reposition the spacecraft, keeping the Advanced Composite Solar Sail System in low power mode until its solar panels are more favorably oriented toward direct sunlight. The team is conserving the spacecraft’s energy for priority operations – such as two-way communications with mission control – until its attitude control system is reactivated,” NASA further said.
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(Image: NASA)
