Current events

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2006

February 22, 2006

  • Spaceflightnow.com: Japanese infrared space observatory goes into orbit - Japan launched the ASTRO-F infrared telescope (now named "Akari"). A solar sail was a secondary payload, described (in Japanese) in the ASTRO-F/M-V-8 data sheet. From the article: "Another apparatus catching a ride to space aboard the M-5 rocket was a deployment test mechanism containing a solar sail made of aluminized polymer film that was supposed to deploy a maximum diameter of around 35 feet beginning just over eighteen minutes after liftoff. Two cameras positioned near the device would capture images of the critical unfurling of the solar sail for downlink to the ground. The experiment is a follow-up to a sub-orbital test conducted in 2004."

February 8, 2006

  • NASA's Centennial Challenges Program Seeks Input On New Prize Competitions. "NASA's Centennial Challenges Program released today draft rules for six new prize competitions. NASA is seeking external comments and collaborating organizations in order to finalize and initiate these Challenges. The six prize competitions encompass a range of capabilities and technologies, including: on-orbit propellant provisioning, lunar astronaut rovers, space suits, advanced power storage, orbital sample return, and solar sails."

2005

November 14, 2005

  • JAXA: October 25 2005: Solar Radiation Pressure Force acting on Hayabusa Station Keeping "Hayabusa has kept its position controlled since it arrived at the Gate Position, 20 km from Itokawa. The biggest disturbance worked is the Solar Radiation Pressure force. The force is simply Light Force acting on everyone everyday. From bright walls, also from heaters, we receive this small force that is never felt on the ground. It is due to the photons that come from the Sun or anything illuminating. The force becomes large when the projected area becomes large and also when the exposed surface has high reflectivity. It is 1/100 with respect to the ion engines thrust, but ten times larger than the gravity of Itokawa at the Home Position."

August 4, 2005

July 21, 2005

  • The Plain Dealer: Setting sail on sun-power research: Technology for space travel being tested in a vacuum in Sandusky, by Madison Park. Story no longer available. A story covering solar sails in general and the recent tests of L'Garde's 20-m square solar sail in the giant thermal-vacuum chamber at the NASA Glenn Plum Brook Station.

June 26, 2005

  • The Planetary Society: Solar Sail Update, June 25, 2005: The Story of Cosmos 1 is Not Over: A Personal Report - by Louis Friedman. Planetary Society executive director and Cosmos 1 project manager Louis Friedman reflects on the Cosmos 1 mission. Despite losing the spacecraft to a launch vehicle failure, the project accomplished much. A solar sail spacecraft was developed, built, and launched in a partnership between a space advocacy organization and private enterprise. The press coverage was substantial and very positive. Stay tuned to the Cosmos 1 web page for future information.

June 18, 2005

  • The Cosmos 1 solar sail mission is set for launch on Tuesday, June 21, 2005. Various updates are available on their website including videos by Louis Friedman and Bill Nye and two updates under the "What's New" section as well as the Cosmos 1 Weblog.

May 24, 2005

April 25, 2005

March 10, 2005

  • A 58 MB 12-minute video on the Columbus 500 Space Sail Cup has been made available by one of the creators, Greg Granville. The video shows animations of several of the solar sail designs intended to compete in the the Columbus 500 Space Sail Cup, as well as introduction to solar sailing. Also includes a news segment from NBC on the Znamya space mirror and solar sailing. I have also placed a link to the video in Web Links#Documents.

February 10, 2005

  • ">The Planetary Society: Solar Sail Update, February 9, 2005: A Pre-Launch Review. All flight components have been delivered and tested, and a full mission sequence has been simulated with the flight computer. Some necessary corrections and fixes were done as a result of the testing. After reviewing the progress, the estimated launch period has slipped to some time in April, rather than March 1st to April 5th.

February 3, 2005

January 5, 2005

  • <a href="http://planetary.org/solarsail/update_20041223.html">The Planetary Spciety: Solar Sail Update, December 23, 2004: Gearing Up for the Launch</a> - by <a href="../people/index.html#friedman">Louis Friedman</a>. The Cosmos 1 mission is on track for a March 1, 2005, launch. The spacecraft complete, and the team is on track to complete all testing by mid-January.
  • <a href="http://lws.gsfc.nasa.gov/news/solar_sails_conference.htm">NASA Living with a Star: Solar Sail Technology and Applications Conference agenda.</a> Many of the papers and movies shown at the Solar Sail Technology and Applications Conference in September, 2004, are available for download.

2004

November 10, 2004

November 8, 2004

Added August 25th, 2004

  • The <a href="https://www.infonetic.com/tis_conferences/sst">Solar Sail Technology and Applications Conference</a> is being held at the Greenbelt, Maryland, Marriot, September 28-29th. The deadline for poster abstracts and pre-registration is September 6th.

Added August 11th, 2004

  • <a href="http://planetary.org/solarsail/update_20040811.html">The Planetary Society, Solar Sail Update, August 8, 2004: Spacecraft Electronics Delivered for Final Assembly, by Project Director Louis Friedman.</a> Space Research Institute (IKI) completed qualification testing of the flight electronics, and delivered them to the spacecraft builder NPO Lavochkin for integration into the spacecraft. This allows final assembly of the spacecraft, and launch either late this year or early 2005.

Added August 10th, 2004

  • <a href="http://www.msfc.nasa.gov/news/news/releases/2004/04-208.html">NASA MSFC: NASA team successfully deploys two solar sail systems.</a> NASA's Solar Sail Propulsion Team and industry partners L'Garde Inc. and Able Engineering successfully completed deployment tests of two solar sail design, 10-meters wide, in vacuum chambers simulating the space environment. Testing of the L'Garde sail was completed in July, and Able's in May.
  • <a href="http://www.isas.jaxa.jp/e/snews/2004/0809.shtml">Japan's Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) performs deployment test of solar sail films in space.</a> A suborbital S-310 rocket launched from Uchinoura Space Center on August 9th, 2004. Two solar sail films, one clover-shaped, and the other fan-shaped, were deployed and filmed from the rocket.

Added June 9th, 2004

  • The <a href="http://www.centennialchallenges.nasa.gov/">NASA Centennial Challenges</a> program is holding a workshop from June 15-16th in Washington DC to gather ideas, develop rules and gauge competitor interest, and promote teaming of competitors for the various challenges. A session on solar sail missions is being held June 16th from 4-5pm.

Added June 3rd, 2004

Added May 5th, 2004

  • <a href="http://www.planetary.org/solarsail/update_20040326.html">The Planetary Society: Progress report on Cosmos 1 solar sail mission for March 26th, 2004.</a> Planetary Society executive director Louis Friedman presented a paper on the Cosmos 1 mission to the American Astronautical Society Space Flight Mechanics Conference in February. At the time of writing, all electronics were complete except for the radio, and flight software testing was nearing completion. The earliest predicted launch is in September 2004.
  • <a href="http://www.teamencounter.com/events/CharlesChaferSenate.asp">Team Encounter: Team Encounter president testifies before U.S. senate.</a> Team Encounter President Charles Chafer testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation February 18, 2004 at a "field hearing" in Houston.

2003

Added December 17th, 2003

  • <a href="http://www.laweekly.com/ink/04/02/quark-wertheim.php">LA Weekly: Quark Soup: Space(F)light: Sailing the solar wind to the stars</a> - Margaret Wertheim reports on the Planetary Society's Cosmos 1 solar sail project, and solar sailing in general.
    Editor's note: The author correctly explains that solar sails are driven by sunlight. But, there is a "solar wind" that is different from sunlight. It is composed of charged particles, whereas sunlight is photons.
  • <a href="http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/interstellar_travel_031217-1.html">Space.com: Reaching for Interstellar Flight</a> - Leonard David reports on the difficulties of interstellar flight, and interviews Steven Howe of Hbar Technologies, who is developing the concept for one solution: the antimatter sail.

Added October 14th, 2003

Added September 26th, 2003

Added September 15th, 2003

  • <a href="http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=10343">SpaceRef: NASA Solar Sail Flight Validation Experiment RFI</a> - Marshall Space Flight Center has issued a request for information (RFI) seeking industry partners to develop a solar sail flight demonstration system.
  • <a href="http://www.e4engineering.com/item.asp?id=49885&type=news">E4Engineering: Setting sail on a solar mission</a> - E4Engineering reports on the solar sail development effort of the European Space Agency and the German Aerospace Center. They intend to construct a 20x20 meter prototype that is intended to be launced within the next two years. It may be launched on a Volna submarine launched rocket, like the Cosmos 1 mission. The German Aerospace Center has already built a number of prototypes, including a 20x20 meter ground demonstration sail.
  • <a href="http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=10104">SpaceRef: Finding the Origin of the Pioneer Anomaly</a> - A paper on arXiv.org by Michael Martin Nieto and Slava G. Turyshev. "Analysis of the radio tracking data from the Pioneer 10/11 spacecraft at distances between 20 - 70 AU from the Sun has consistently indicated the presence of an anomalous, small Doppler frequency drift. The drift can be interpreted as being due to a constant acceleration of a_P = (8.74 \pm 1.33) x 10^{-8} cm/s^2 directed towards the Sun. Although it is suspected that there is a systematic origin to the effect, none has been found. As a result, the nature of this anomaly has become of growing interest. We have developed a concept for a deep-space mission that would reveal the origin of the discovered anomaly. A number of critical requirements and design considerations for such a mission are outlined and addressed. In particular we explore the use of a solar sail as a means to reach a great distance from the Sun in a short period of time."
  • <a href="http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=10102">SpaceRef: Measuring the Interplanetary Medium with a Solar Sail</a> - A paper on arXiv.org by Michael Martin Nieto and Slava G. Turyshev. "A solar sail mission to deep space could determine the density of the interplanetary medium by measuring the drag force on the huge sail with radiometric navigational data. Thus, a mission similar to the Interstellar Probe might consider retaining its sail beyond the orbit of Jupiter to measure the matter density in deep space. Such an experiment would a yield an independent, new type of measurement of the interplanetary medium and should be pursued."

Added September 10th, 2003

Added September 5th, 2003

Added August 19th, 2003

  • <a href="http://www.planetary.org/solarsail/update_20030811.html">Cosmos 1: Solar Sail Launch Vehicle Passes Crucial Test</a> - The Volna launch vehicle that will be used for the Cosmos 1 solar sail successfully tested seperation of an engineering model of the spacecraft from the third stage of the rocket. This was done after the Volna third stage failed to deploy during two previous suborbital launches.
  • <a href="http://geocities.com/bobvanx/play/handy/topicplayreflector.html">Robert van de Walle: circular Miura-Ori fold</a> - Robert van de Walle has applied the Miura-Ori folding technique to a ring-shaped sail. This link has also been added to the <a href="../web/index.html#geninfo">Web Links -> General Information section.</a>

Added August 7th, 2003

Added July 29th, 2003

2002

Added December 10, 2002

Added September 22, 2002

  • <a href="../people/index.html#forward">Robert L. Forward</a> passed away on September, 21st, 2002. He was a good friend, mentor, and inspiration to myself and many others. <a href="forwardobit.html">This is a message from Bob's partner at Tethers Unlimited, Rob Hoyt.</a>
  • <a href="http://sse.jpl.nasa.gov/whatsnew/pr/020830E.html">NASA awards funding to solar sail research.</a> NASA's Office of Space Science gave three funding awards for solar sail technology development. The three projects are 'Development of a Striped-Net sail and Inflatable boom model' at L'Garde Inc., 'Development of a CP1 sail and Coilable boom model' at Able Engineering, and 'Development of an integrated set of solar sail simulation tools' at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

Added May 14th, 2002

  • <a href="http://www.aero.gla.ac.uk/Research/Ss/MenuPage.html">Space Systems Engineering Group</a> web page of the University of Glasgow Aerospace Engineering department includes many of the presentations given at the Royal Astronomical Society discussion meeting on Solar Sail Applications that took place on May 10th, 2002. There is also information on solar sail research.

Added April 20th, 2002

  • <a href="sail_prog.pdf">Final programme for the Royal Astronomical Society discussion meeting on Solar Sail Applications</a> is now available. This event takes place on Friday May 10th 2002 in London. The organizers are Professor Colin McInnes of the University of Glasgow <a href="mailto:colinmc@aero.gla.ac.uk">(colinmc@aero.gla.ac.uk)</a> and Professor Carl Murray of the University of London <a href="mailto:c.d.murray@qmul.ac.uk">(c.d.murray@qmul.ac.uk)</a>.

Added March 26th, 2002

  • <a href="http://www.planetary.org/solarsail/Media.htm">Progress Continues, Launch Date Slips For Cosmos 1: The First Solar Sail.</a> A number of factors arose that neccessitated a schedule slip in order to keep program performance, risk, and cost the same. A new launch data should be announced in Late March.
  • <a href="http://www.solarsailing.ws/">Space Sailing</a> is a new web site by <a href="../people/#wright">Jerome Wright</a> that draws from his book <a href="../biblio/books.html#space_sailing">Space Sailing.</a> This web site includes information on light pressure, missions, ship designs, operations, and history.
  • <a href="http://www.spacecityone.com/genastro/">General Astronautics</a> and <a href="http://www.sstl.co.uk/">Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL)</a> are jointly offering low-cost solar sail spacecraft built around SSTL's SNAP-1 spacecraft.

Added March 14th, 2002

Added February 28th, 2002

  • <a href="Sail_flyer.pdf">Royal Astronomical Society Discussion Meeting: Solar Sail Mission Applications.</a> This meeting is being held in London on May 10th, 2002. It is organized by Professor Colin McInnes of the Univeristy of Glasgow and Professor Carl Murray of the University of London.
  • <a href="http://www.teamencounter.com/">Team Encounter</a> is holding a preliminary design review on February 28th and March 1st 2002. Questions are solicited from the public on the project web site by 10am central time on March 1st.
  • <a href="http://www.teamencounter.com/">Team Encounter</a> and <a href="http://www.lgarde.com/">L'Garde</a> performed successful tests on February 14th and 15th 2002 in Tustin, California, of the lightweight inflatable booms that will support the solar sails used on the Team Encounter spacecraft.

Added February 23rd, 2002

  • <a href="http://www.teamencounter.com/">Team Encounter</a> successfully tested the deployment of a sail segment on January 15th, 2002. <a href="http://www.lgarde.com/">L'Garde</a> performed the test and is constructing the sail for Team Encounter. The sail is made of 1 micron aluminized Mylar, which is much thinner than any previously available sail films.

Added February 6th, 2002

2001

Added November 18th, 2001

  • <a href="http://www.planetary.org/html/society/press/New_Plans.htm">New plan for Cosmos 1 solar sail</a> is to perform the orbital flight test of an eight-bladed solar sail instead of repeating the sub-orbital deployment test.
  • <a href="http://www.u3p.net">The Union pour la Promotion de la Propulsion Photonique (U3P)</a> celebrates it's 20th anniversary with a new version of it's website.

Added July 27th, 2001

  • <a href="http://www.planetary.org/solarsail/index2.html">The Cosmos 1 solar sail</a> test vehicle was successfully launched from a submarine in the Barents Sea on July 20th. Unfortunately, the command to separate the test vehicle from the rocket was not issued, so the test deployment of two solar sail blades was not carried out. The Planetary Society and Cosmos Studios are still on track to launch the fully operational solar sailing vessel, Cosmos 1, at a later date.
  • The technology partners for <a href="http://nmp.jpl.nasa.gov/st7/">Space Technology 7</a> were announced on July 20, 2001. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Swales Aerospace, Arizona State University, and AEC-Able Engineering were selected to provide technology for the solar sail segment. Space Technology 7 is a project under NASA's <a href="http://nmp.jpl.nasa.gov/">New Millenium Program</a>

Added July 14, 2001

Added May 4, 2001

  • <a href="http://research.hq.nasa.gov/code_s/nra/current/NRA-00-OSS-06/winners.html">The Gossamer Spacecraft Exploratory Research and Technology Program</a> winners have been announced under NASA Research Announcement NRA 00-OSS-06. Many solar sail research projects are included under this award.
  • <a href="http://www.planetary.org/solarsail/Media.htm">The Cosmos 1 Report</a> reports that an accident during testing of the suborbital deployment test vehicle for their solar sail vehicle. Deployment pyrotechnics for the spacecraft went off, resulting in partial deployment on a test stand. The mission has been delayed until repairs can be made.

Added April 10, 2001

  • <a href="http://www.planetary.org/solarsail/Media.htm">The Cosmos 1 Report</a> gives an update on the <a href="../links/index.html#cosmos1">Cosmos 1 solar sail mission.</a> The suborbital test launch on a Russian submarine launched Volna rocket is scheduled for April 26th.

Added February 27, 2001

Added February 26, 2001

  • <a href="../links/index.html#cosmos1">The Planetary Society and Cosmos Studios are planning the Cosmos 1 solar sail mission.</a> This is to be the first solar sail mission. A suborbital test launch of the sail deployment will be conducted in April from a Russian submarine launched Volna rocket. Later this year, a Volna will launch the mission into orbit.


Added February 7, 2001

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