NASA is going to test a new solar sail system to determine if it's a viable alternative to propellant-based thrusters for maneuvering small satellites, and potentially for low-cost transportation of spacecraft set on deep-space missions. The agency has selected Illinois-based NanoAvionics to provide the spacecraft that will be used to test the solar sail system, the company announced today. The mission, called NASA's Advanced Composite Solar Sail System or ACS3, is headed by NASA's Ames Research System, and will see a small satellite deployed to low Earth orbit equipped with a solar sail that unfurls to cover around 800 square feet – the size of a pretty large one bedroom apartment.
from Yahoo Tech https://ift.tt/3aMoh4Y
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