NASA's Pioneering Space Mission ACS3 Launched Into Space-Incorporated With Solar Sail & CubeSat For Generating Thrust & Propulsion

Hello, Everyone!

On the 24th of April 2024, the United States space agency NASA launched its Advanced Composite Solar Sail System (ACS3 ) Spacecraft into the cosmos from a launch site in New Zealand at 3:30 Am. This mission was launched to feature and examine cutting-edge technology of solar sailing.

But what is Solar Sailing? This technology is leveraged to generate thrust from solar particles for propulsion's sake.

Let's ponder over this Solar Sail Technology :

The sunlight is composed of multitudes of particles referred to as photons. These Photons do not possess mass but possess momentum. Once the sunlight gets reflected from a solar sail, the momentum of the solar particles is transferred into a minor thrust providing a mere push to the spacecraft. This is a breakthrough in space technology as it's able to access those cosmic destinations that have been near to impossible by far. Also, this uses sunlight for propulsion rather than the traditional fuel-based rockets.

The mission aims to showcase and test its cutting-edge solar sail.

The spacecraft was launched into space by employing an electron rocket engineered by Rocket Lab.

On the 24th of April 2024, the United States space agency NASA launched its Advanced Composite Solar Sail System (ACS3 ) Spacecraft into the cosmos from a launch site in New Zealand at 3:30 Am. This mission was launched to feature and examine cutting-edge technology of solar sailing. But what is Solar Sailing? This technology is leveraged to generate thrust from solar particles for propulsion's sake. The mission aims to showcase and test its cutting-edge solar sail.

Pic Source: https://space.skyrocket.de/d

Let us focus on the mission -Advanced Composite Solar Sail System (ACS3 ) Spacecraft salient features:

-> 1. The spacecraft was expected to rotate around our Earth at an altitude of 1000 Km from the Earth's surface. This implies that the vertical distance between the spacecraft and the Earth's surface is 1000 Km.

-> 2. Once the spacecraft is successfully placed into a 1000 Km orbit, the solar sail which is a vital component of ACS3 will have a total surface area of 80 sq. meter. The solar sail is similar to a sail on a sailboat. It is vital to take note that the larger sail area of the solar sail will enable it to capture sunlight at a larger scale.

The objective of the solar sail is to capture sunlight and transfer the solar particles or photons's momentum into a minor push or thrust to propel it forward into space. A larger surface area of the sail enables it with higher proficiency to attain propulsion, owing to its ability to capture sunlight at large scales.

-> 3. The positioning of the solar sail into the 1000 Km orbit was planned to occur post-completion 25 minutes, after the spacecraft's liftoff. During these twenty-five minutes time, the spacecraft ACS3 was about to extend the solar sail which was primarily in a compact, or stowed shape, i.e. folded or rolled to make itself fit into the spacecraft's ACS3's storage compartment.

The solar sail is a vital component of the mission spacecraft ACS3. This solar sail was planned to be placed into the designated orbit that would be the prime propulsion medium in the spacecraft's system

-> 4. The mission {  Advanced Composite Solar Sail System (ACS3 ) Spacecraft} envisions carefully analyzing and observing the key properties, behavior, and performance of the physical components employed to engineer these solar sails.

This mechanism includes:-

->Monitoring of the properties of the materials: Monitoring of the properties of the materials employed for manufacturing solar sails for instance their strength, flexibility, durability, and thermal properties. Careful monitoring is requisite for the pursuit of ensuring the solar sail's ability to cope with extreme cosmological situations and its propensity to effectively capture and harness sunlight for propulsion's sake.

-> Seamless Deployment Of Solar Sail: This includes carefully analyzing if the deployment of solar sail from the ACS 3 spacecraft is successfully done or not i.e. confirming how the unfolding of the solar sail is done to its complete dimensions without any malfunctions.

-> Evaluating Structural Integrity: This involves evaluating the structural integrity of the solar sail once placed into the orbit; including its shape, stability, and rigidity.Ensuring, that the solar sail maintains its desired form and remains stable while the ongoing mission is indisputable for the pursuit of achieving efficient spacecraft's propulsion and speed. This involves examining the shape, stability, and rigidity of the solar sail to affirm that the solar sail remains stable in its desired form during the entire mission.

-> Assessment Of Thrust Generation For Propulsion Sake: This involves assessment of the proficiency of the solar sail; to transfer sunlight particles /photons momentum into thrust for seamless propulsion of the spacecraft - ACS3, into the space.

Therefore; by considering all these assessment pointers we can say that through assessment of these key factors is pivotal for transcending the design and operation of this cutting-edge technology and transcending its proficiency for upcoming space missions.

-> 5. The mission duration was primarily set to be two months. In this time duration, the spacecraft ACS3 will execute several operations and experiments for analyzing and assessing the performance of the solar sail system.

-> 6. The most fascinating part is that; post-completion of its first leg and its key objectives, the ACS3 spacecraft is likely to re-enter or descend into our Earth's atmosphere, where the spacecraft will either combustion off after its re-entry or land into the oceanic waters complying with the mission and design requirements.

-> 7. The solar sail will also descend i.e. retract or will get compacted; or will get deactivated before the spacecraft's re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere post-completion of its mission objectives.

-> 8. But how will the ACS 3 spacecraft get propelled once the sunlight particles fall into the solar sail? It is done by Cube Sat which acts as an enabler for propelling the spacecraft whenever the solar particles or photons fall onto the solar sail.

But what is CubeSat? It is essentially a kind of nanosatellite which are incorporated into the mission due to its miniature size and small mass that complies with a standardized shape and size based on a 10 cm cubes (1U) module. However, they can be engineered in large dimensions for instance 1.5 U,2U, 6U, or even 16 U, by integrating multitudes of 1U modules.

These CubeSat are ideal for being integrated into launch vehicles and placed into space along with the larger payloads such as larger satellites, spacecraft, or scientific instruments which are key requisites for the mission.

-> 9. CubeSat Upward & Downward Movement- Once the ACS3 spacecraft is launched into space, the crew members dedicated to the mission will conduct several pointing movements to examine CubeSat's potential to attain a higher orbit or come at a lower orbit according to the sunlight. The solar-sailing technology-empowered spacecraft would appear as the brightest star in the sky in the night-time, similar to Sirius.

-> As per NASA's press release -In the initial mission duration of 2 months, various components of the spacecraft are examined and analyzed to ensure their efficiency.

After the completion of 2 months, the Cube Sat deploys solar sail into space i.e. the solar sail will be extended from its contracted or stowed position in the spacecraft to the space.

This step is a breakthrough in the mission, as the spacecraft will enter into the operational phase from the initial setup phase. In the operational phase, the solar sail will be leveraged for propulsion purposes.

Thank You.

References:

https://www.news18.com/viral/nasas-advanced-composite-solar-sail-system-launched-into-space-to-redefine-propulsion-8865615.html