About Advanced Composite Solar Sail System (ACS3):
- It is a NASA technology demonstration mission designed to characterize solar sail structures technologies for future small spacecraft to engage in deep space missions requiring long-duration, low-thrust propulsion.
- Launched in 2024, ACS3 will deploy a sail about the size of a small apartment from a toaster oven-size spacecraft.
- At its core, ACS3 is a CubeSat, a small satellite built to standardized dimensions. It features four 7 m long deployable composite booms.
- Just as a sailboat is powered by wind in a sail, solar sails employ the pressure of sunlight for propulsion, eliminating the need for conventional rocket propellant.
- Space missions have demonstrated that small spacecraft can use solar sails to change their orbits, expanding their possible uses.
- Future solar sail missions will need bigger sails and lighter materials to maximize their performance.
- ACS3 uses lightweight carbon fiber sail booms instead of traditional metal booms.
- This will be the first test of this technology in space.
- What is solar sailing?
- Light is made up of particles called photons. Photons don’t have mass, but they have momentum.
- As sunlight reflects off a shiny solar sail, some of its momentum gets transferred, giving the sail a small push.
- This push is slight but continuous and, over time, can impart more thrust to a spacecraft than traditional chemical rockets.
- Solar sails can reach unique destinations that are difficult or impossible to access with other propulsion systems.
- This may also be the best option for interstellar travel.
