By 
June 18th, 2020
Credit: The Planetary Society
One year after launching into space, The Planetary Society’s LightSail 2 spacecraft has completed its primary mission phase and is embarking on an extended mission starting next week, dedicated to further advancing solar sailing technology.
LightSail 2 remains healthy, except for a few minor problems.
According to The Planetary Society’s website, images show one of the tape measure-like sail booms has buckled, and an analysis of shadows from the spacecraft’s solar panels shows that one panel is not fully deployed.
Credit: The Planetary Society
However, these issues have not greatly impacted LightSail 2’s solar sailing performance.
The LightSail 2 extended mission begins on June 25, 2020.
Extended mission
The goals of the extended mission include:
— Continue to tune LightSail 2’s solar sail performance
— Learn more about solar sailing operation through the study of various operational refinements and orbital evolution in response to sail control
— Continue taking pictures for public outreach and engineering analyses, including to study sail, boom, and spacecraft evolution
— Implement deorbit studies of sail dynamics with the sail acting as a drag sail
— Test a ground-based fault protection algorithm being developed by Purdue University Ph.D. student Justin Mansell
— Continue to share information about the mission and what we are learning from it with the technical community and the public, through peer-reviewed journal articles, conference presentations, direct contact with future solar sailing missions, web articles, and social media.
Credit: The Planetary Society
Participation opportunity
You’re invited to join CEO Bill Nye and the LightSail 2 mission team to celebrate the end of LightSail 2’s primary mission and the beginning of extended operations.
To participate on Thursday, June 25, 2020, register here at:
https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/5749726040769866253
For more information on LightSail 2, go to:
https://www.planetary.org/explore/projects/lightsail-solar-sailing/
Posted in Space News
