Planetary Society - 27 May 2010
LightSail: Solar Sailing ProjectThe LightSail-1 spacecraft development is proceeding well. Our engineering team—led by Jim Cantrell—has completed the preliminary design and made critical decisions to select the hardware and subsystem for the final design—crucial milestones to building the vehicle that will demonstrate the value and potential of using sunlight alone to propel exploratory craft through space.
Thanks to you and your fellow Planetary Society Members, we are well under way with LightSail-1, the first of our planned series of three flights. The three missions will be progressively more ambitious, starting in Earth orbit and moving out into the solar system.
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Our goal was to finish spacecraft development and be ready for launch by the end of 2010. LightSail-1 can ride on a variety of launch vehicles, but we must piggyback as a secondary payload on an existing mission. To fly completely free of atmospheric drag, LightSail-1 requires a higher orbit than most secondary payload launches can reach. Opportunities exist, but they’re less frequent than other launches to low Earth orbit. It now appears that our earliest opportunity will come no sooner than the second quarter of 2011. The delay offers one positive aspect for planning: it eases our spacecraft development schedule, giving us more time to analyze options and enhance our test program. The bad news is that without a specific launch vehicle agreement, we cannot specify the orbit in which the mission will be conducted. That prevents us from completing the mission design—another reason to stretch out our schedule.