Spaceship with a "sail of the sun" LightSail will go on its first flight in May

Sunny sail is an interesting concept that has been repeatedly mentioned by many science fiction writers. In theory, with a sufficiently large surface area of ​​the cosmic “sail” and its small thickness, the solar wind pressure, which has been in place for quite a long time, can lead to a speeding spacecraft with such a sail. This is all in theory, in practice everything is more complicated - there may be problems that are simply not obvious right now.

In May, the solar sailboat LightSail will go on its first flight, now it is being developed by a group of enthusiasts, which is supported by The Planetary Society . A miniature ship LightSail with a hull size of 10 * 30 centimeters will go on its first flight in May, Atlas V will launch it into orbit.


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For now this will not be a full journey - the solar wind will not be used for movement. The ship will try to spread the sails, and the developers will check how the whole system works. The sails are 4, and the thickness of each is only 4.5 microns (this is 4 times thinner than the material from which ordinary garbage bags are made). The total sail area is 30 square meters. When LightSail goes into orbit, it will be visible for observation from Earth. The developers will report the coordinates of the ship to be watched by amateur astronomers. The device is equipped with its own system of orientation in space, based on work with the magnetic field of the Earth.

After the first flight, two more versions of the device will be launched, which will be sent with Falcon Heavy launch vehicles from SpaceX. At this time, experts will check the performance of the principle of the movement of the solar sail. It is worth noting that the moment of deployment of the sail will be filmed by another satellite, Prox-1.



The cost of the entire project was 4 million US dollars, and the investors were private individuals. Perhaps this project will help to create ships that are not experienced, but are used in the space industry, capable of carrying a person over long distances.