Josh Spradling / The Planetary Society
Bill Nye’s sunbeam-powered spacecraft caused quite a scare for him and his company Planetary Society when it lost the ability to send information back to earth. LightSail got cut off from communications a week after it launched on May 20th due to a software glitch. They couldn’t get it to reboot remotely and so the engineers put their hope in the “natural reboot” that would happen when it collides with stray charged particles. Thankfully, that happened and they re-established connection with the spacecraft.
LightSail was inspired by Carl Sagan’s solar sailing idea, which imagines a spacecraft using the sun in the same way a sailboat uses the wind. This month’s test hopes to prove it can unfurl it sails. If successful, a second test run will happen in April next year. LightSail is built with a small satellite and four Mylar sails to ride solar radiation. The scientists hope to prove that solar propulsion can get rid of the need for boosters or fuel reserves in spaceflight.
Source: The Verge