Tag: Solar sails
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Far out! Xplore teams up with JPL and Aerospace Corp. on gravity-lens telescope
An artist’s conception shows Xplore’s advanced solar sail for NASA’s Solar Gravity Lens Focus mission. (Visualization by Bryan Versteeg, SpaceHabs.com / via Xplore) NASA has awarded a $2 million grant to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, The Aerospace Corp. — and Xplore, a Seattle-based space venture — to develop the design architecture for a far-out telescope…
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Planetary Society hails ‘mission success’ after LightSail 2 solar sail raises its orbit
This image was taken during the LightSail 2 sail deployment sequence on July 23. Baja California and Mexico are visible in the background. This image has been de-distorted and color corrected. (Planetary Society Photo / CC BY-NC 3.0) It may be “mission accomplished” for the Planetary Society’s solar sail experiment, but its privately funded LightSail…
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LightSail 2 unfurls in orbit, marking the climax of solar sail experiment
An artist’s conception shows LightSail 2’s four triangular solar sails fully deployed in orbit. (Planetary Society Illustration / Josh Spradling) The nonprofit Planetary Society says its LightSail 2 experiment spread out its solar sails today, nearly a month after it took a piggyback ride to orbit aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. Following through on…
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SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket puts a solar sail and scads of other experiments in orbit
Launch pad video shows the Falcon Heavy liftoff from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. (SpaceX via YouTube) SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket had its first night launch tonight, sending 24 different spacecraft toward three different types of orbit to test a wide range of technologies. The triple-barreled rocket rose into the sky from Launch Complex 39A at…