For three years too young loaf of-A spaceship the size of a giant loaf of bread Wings sailed on the sunshine in Low Earth Orbit. LightSail 2 Has Exceeded Life Expectancy It has proven that solar sails can indeed be used to fly Starship. But its journey around our planet is unfortunately coming to an end, as Earth’s atmosphere pulls the spacecraft down to where it will eventually burn up. atmospheric flame.
Planetary Society 2 . sailing boats Launched in June 2019 and published 344 sq ft (32 sq m) Solar sail after a month. Just two weeks after spreading its wings, LightSail 2 rose by two miles (3.2 kilometers) in height, making it This experiment was successful. But for a few months, LightSail 2 has been losing ground more and more evaluation. It is now sailing at an average altitude of about 390 miles (627 km)), down about 446 miles (718 km) at the beginning of the task, According to the Planetary Society.
Scientists behind the mission expect LightSail 2 to return to Earth’s atmosphere within the next few months, but they don’t have a specific date. During re-entry, the spacecraft will move somehow Quickly it would create an energetic pressure wave in front of it, causing the air around it to warm up and burn LightSail in a fiery shroud.
Solar sails work thanks to the photons of the sun, causing small bursts of the momentum that Propel the spacecraft as Photons hit LightSail’s wings, the spacecraft is propelled away from the sun. If the spacecraft can overcome the drag of Earth’s atmosphere, it will likely reach very high altitudes.
Throughout its mission, LightSail 2 has seen its ups and downs (literally). orbit Sometimes lost Few meters of altitude difference per day And win sometimes a few meters. But after three years of circumnavigating the Earth, experimental device seem to discover Steep decline At a height after several factors.
As the spacecraft landed, the density of the atmosphere increased very rapidly, dragging the atmosphere. LightSail crashed into the atmosphere grains He also traveled to gears Reach 20,000 mph (32000 km / h), causing the spacecraft to slow down. “Our case is more extreme than most spacecraft because the surface area of our sail is so large compared to the mass of the spacecraft,”Planetary Society wrote in statement. “Imagine throwing a stone in exchange for a piece of paper. Atmospheric drag will stop paper much faster than rocks.
Ironically, the Sun also worked against LightSail 2. When the sun is most active, It heats up Earth’s upper atmosphere, This leads to its expansion to higher heights. At the beginning Mission, the Sun has been going through some downtime as part of an 11-year cycle, but our host recently star Re-launched for Max solar period. this is his Of the people More intense at higher altitudes, same Reaching the spaceship, pull LightSail 2 down.
The third factor that led to LightSail’s demise is more human than global. Mission suffered Connection problems due to an error ground station equipment. During the outages, the team was unable to send data to the spacecraft, causing it to sail Suffer, albeit a little.
Although LightSail 2 Soon to meet his fiery death, the legacy of the spaceship will live on forever. orbit inspired several other expeditions, Including NASA NASA Scout mission to a near-Earth asteroid(launch scheduled for August)And NASA’s Advanced Solar Sail Composite System To test the material of the sail arm in Earth orbit (It is planned to be launched in the middle of 2022)And from NASA solar cruiser (scheduled for launch in 2025). The age of the solar sail, it seems, fast approaching.
after, after: LightSail 2, propelled by sunlight, raises its orbit 10,500 feet in just two weeks