{"id":10157,"date":"2024-02-12T18:05:45","date_gmt":"2024-02-12T22:05:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zobi.alcowep.com\/bourtagshdrevxnls658739\/nasa-solar-sail-technology-passes-crucial-deployment-test\/"},"modified":"2024-02-12T18:05:45","modified_gmt":"2024-02-12T22:05:45","slug":"nasa-solar-sail-technology-passes-crucial-deployment-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zobi.alcowep.com\/bourtagshdrevxnls658739\/nasa-solar-sail-technology-passes-crucial-deployment-test\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA Solar Sail Technology Passes Crucial Deployment Test"},"content":{"rendered":"

NASA Solar Sail Technology Passes Crucial Deployment Test<\/h2>\n

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4 min read<\/p>\n

Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\"A<\/figure>
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NASA Marshall Space Flight Center technologists Les Johnson and Leslie McNutt at Redwire Space on Jan. 30, 2024, following a successful solar sail deployment test. NASA cleared a key technology milestone at Redwire\u2019s new facility in Longmont, Colorado, with the successful deployment of one of four identical solar sail quadrants. <\/div>\n
Redwire Space<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

By Wayne Smith<\/em><\/p>\n

In his youth, NASA technologist Les Johnson was riveted by the 1974 novel \u201cThe Mote in God\u2019s Eye,\u201d by Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven, in which an alien spacecraft propelled by solar sails visits humanity. Today, Johnson and a NASA team are preparing to test a similar technology.<\/p>\n

NASA continues to unfurl plans for solar sail technology as a promising method of deep space transportation. The agency cleared a key technology milestone in January with the successful deployment of one of four identical solar sail quadrants. The deployment was showcased Jan. 30 at Redwire Corp.\u2019s new facility in Longmont, Colorado. NASA\u2019s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, leads the solar sail team, comprised of prime contractor Redwire, which developed the deployment mechanisms and the nearly 100-foot-long booms, and subcontractor NeXolve, of Huntsville, which provided the sail membrane. In addition to leading the project, Marshall developed the algorithms needed to control and navigate with the sail when it flies in space.<\/p>\n

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NASA and industry partners used two 100-foot lightweight composite booms to stretch out a 4,445-square-footsquare-foot (400-square-meter) prototype solar sail quadrant for the first time Jan. 30, 2024. While just one quarter of the sail was unfurled in the deployment at Redwire, the complete sail will measure 17,780 square feet when fully deployed, with the thickness less than a human hair at 2 and a half microns. The sail is made of a polymer material coated with aluminum. (Redwire Space)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The sail is a propulsion system powered by sunlight reflecting from the sail, much like a sailboat reflects the wind. While just one quarter of the sail was unfurled in the deployment at Redwire, the complete sail will measure 17,780 square feet when fully deployed, with the thickness less than a human hair at 2 and a half microns. The sail is made of a polymer material coated with aluminum.<\/p>\n

NASA\u2019s Science Mission Directorate recently funded the solar sail technology to reach a new technology readiness level, or TRL 6, which means it\u2019s ready for proposals to be flown on science missions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was a major last step on the ground before it\u2019s ready to be proposed for space missions,\u201d Johnson, who has been involved with sail technology at Marshall for about 25 years, said. \u201cWhat\u2019s next is for scientists to propose the use of solar sails in their missions. We\u2019ve met our goal and demonstrated that we\u2019re ready to be flown.\u201d<\/p>\n

A solar sail traveling through deep space provides many potential benefits to missions using the technology because it doesn\u2019t require any fuel, allowing very high propulsive performance with very little mass. This in-space propulsion system is well suited for low-mass missions in novel orbits.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce you get away from Earth\u2019s gravity and into space, what is important is efficiency and enough thrust to travel from one position to another,\u201d Johnson said. <\/p>\n

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A solar sail achieves that by reflecting sunlight \u2013 the greater the size of the sail, the greater thrust it can provide.<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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\"Les<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Les Johnson<\/p>\n

NASA technologist<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Some of the missions of interest using solar sail technology include studying space weather and its effects on the Earth, or for advanced studies of the north and south poles of the Sun. The latter has been limited because the propulsion required to\u00a0 get a spacecraft into a polar orbit around the sun is very high and simply not feasible using most of the propulsion systems available today. Solar sail propulsion is also possible for enhancing future missions to Venus or Mercury, given their closeness to the Sun and the enhanced thrust a solar sail would achieve in the more intense sunlight there.<\/p>\n

Moreover, it\u2019s the ultimate green propulsion system, Johnson said \u2013 as long as the Sun is shining, the sail will have propulsion. Where the sunlight is less, he envisions a future where lasers could be used to accelerate the solar sails to high speeds, pushing them outside the solar system and beyond, perhaps even to another star. \u201cIn the future, we might place big lasers in space that shine their beams on the sails as they depart the solar system, accelerating them to higher and higher speeds, until eventually they are going fast enough to reach another star in a reasonable amount of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

To learn more about solar sails and other NASA advanced space technology, visit:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/space-technology-mission-directorate<\/a><\/p>\n

Jonathan Deal
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
256-544-0034
<\/em>jonathan.e.deal@nasa.gov<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

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