– Rocket Lab will launch NASA’s Advanced Composite Solar Sail System (ACS3) mission no earlier than April 24 from their launch site in Mahia, New Zealand.
– The goal of the ACS3 mission is to test the deployment of new composite booms that will unfold and hold triangular solar sail sheets in place to form a kite-like structure.
– The composite booms are stiffer, lighter, and made of carbon fiber reinforced polymer compared to previous metal booms, allowing the large solar sail to compactly fit on the small satellite for launch.
– Once in a 600 mile low Earth orbit, the solar sail will take around 25 minutes to fully deploy via the composite booms to a size of around 860 square feet.
– The mission aims to test deploying and maneuvering a solar sail this large made of new composite materials, which could enable more ambitious solar sail missions like exploring Europa and Enceladus.
– If successful, the ACS3 demonstration could help validate new solar sail technologies for low-cost propulsion and inspire other innovative spacecraft designs utilizing solar sailing.
Source: Space
