while the Planetary Society is tagging along with a solar sail demo. Although largely mum about this X-37b flight, the Air force has acknowledged a thruster experiment involving electric propulsion.
'It is intended to improve performance of the units onboard Advanced Extremely high frequency (AEHF) military communications spacecraft,
#Lightsail launches to test revolutionary solar technology in Earth orbit A small spacecraft designed to test solar sail technology in Earth orbit has taken flight in a successful launch.
which are essentially tiny spacecraft that can be launched relatively cheaply. In total, the core of the vehicle weighs 22lbs (10kg)
At the bottom of the four spacecraft on each of its four sides, though, a huge solar sail has been olded upthis sail,
measuring 345 square ft (32 square metres) in total in size, is made of an extremely reflective material called Mylar.
or friction holding the spacecraft back, so it will always accelerate. f youe out in space where there nothing to stop you,
and a low enough mass spacecraft, it gets pushed, chief executive of The Planetary Society Bill Nye said in a webcast after the launch.
Previous attempts to test solar sail technology, such as Nasa Nanosail-D2 in 2010, were less successful in this latter part-the sail didn't unfurl properly,
a second Lightsail spacecraft will then be sent into space on the first launch of Spacex powerful Falcon Heavy rocket next year.
This spacecraft will be placed into a much higher orbit 447 miles (720km) up far enough away from Earth that it should be able to escape the gravitational pull of our planet.
Another spacecraft called Prox-1 will take images. This will allow this second spacecraft to use the push from the sun to travel into the solar system.
Aside from journeys deep into the cosmos, another uses for solar sail technology involves not actually moving at all
but staying stationary. A spacecraft using a solar sail could be placed in an orbit between Earth and the sun,
where it could remain in place without falling into the sun thanks to the push it receives,
known as tation keepingsuch a spacecraft could be used to either observe the sun in detail, or to look at Earth and track asteroids near the planet.
The idea for a spacecraft to be equipped with a solar sail to use the solar wind for propulsion was described by the late astrophysicist Carl Sagan four decades ago. ecause it has a constant acceleration,
It was theorised that solar sails could accelerate spacecraft far beyond the speeds of traditional fuels, to make interplanetary-and interstellar travel more feasible.
The Planetary Society has said also not what the second spacecraft destination will be, but in future the technology could be used for missions to the moon and other planets in the solar system. ith solar sailing,
According to Nasa, scientists could also use it to search for images and data from spacecraft.
for example, help catalog the vast amounts of data NASA spacecraft deliver on a daily basis.'We're developing next-generation search technologies that understand people, places,
Awareness of existing publications also helps program managers to assess the impact of spacecraft data.
Airbus will make 900 spacecraft-building up to four a day-with 300 to be kept as spares for after the proposed launches,
Rockets will be needed to propel the spacecraft into Earth orbit, and Sir Richard Branson Virgin galactic may be an option.
It provides thrust to a spacecraft by bouncing microwaves around in a closed container. Solar energy provides the electricity to power the microwaves,
say their research could help develop new types of heat shields on spacecraft or be used in gas turbines.
so their uses are restricted to very specialized applications, such as spacecraft or advanced cooling systems. The new foam metal being developed by the NC State team led by Afsaneh Rabiei,
which the company says could boost computing power of verything from smartphones to spacecraft. he company unveiled the industry first seven-nanometer chip that could hold more than 20 billion tiny switches or transistors for improved computing power.
The JPL team responsible for Onsight specializes in systems to control robots and spacecraft. The tool will assist researchers in better understanding the environment
and workspace of robotic spacecraft--something that can be quite challenging with their traditional suite of tools.
"This work means there's an opportunity to use composite metal foam to develop safer systems for transporting nuclear waste, more efficient designs for spacecraft and nuclear structures,
kicking off the robotic vehicle's clandestine fourth mission as well as the first flight of a tiny solar-sailing spacecraft.
and more on the gear the spacecraft is carrying to orbit. X-37b Space Plane's 4th Mystery Mission in Photos"We are excited about our fourth X-37b mission,"Randy Walden,
"including the Lightsail solar sail that was developed by the nonprofit Planetary Society. Lightsail aims to prove out key solar-sailing technology ahead of a more ambitious orbital trial next year.
The Air force owns two X-37b spacecraft, both of which were built by Boeing's Phantom Works division.
saying the X-37b is simply testing out technologies for reusable vehicles and future spacecraft.
it generates thrust by accelerating ions (electrically charged atoms or molecules) out the back of a spacecraft.
plus it enhances spacecraft operational flexibility, survivability and longevity.""The NASA payload, called the Materials Exposure
The goal is to gather data that could aid in the design of future spacecraft,
the Planetary Society's Lightsail spacecraft will come back down to Earth in just a few weeks.
will unfurl its 344-square-foot (32 square m) solar sail. But the craft is not going high enough to actually use the sail for propulsion;
But the shiny sail should make the bantam spacecraft visible to the naked eye during its brief orbital trial.
#New Spaceship Antenna Prevents Radio Silence During Fiery Re-Entry When future spacecraft re-enter the atmosphere,
a new kind of antenna might help them keep in contact with ground control, despite the fiery sheaths of superhot plasma around them, researchers say.
As the crippled spacecraft plummeted back toward Earth, the communications blackout lasted more than a minute longer than expected,
The discovery means the materials could be useful in spacecraft, the nuclear industry and in medicine.
in protecting equipment onboard exploratory spacecraft from the high radiation fluxes sometimes found in space without adding significantly to their weight,
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