Photo: Planetary Society
Somewhere above our heads, a small spacecraft with aluminized Mylar sail is making history. Launched at the end of June on the Falcon Heavy, the LightSail 2 spacecraft is currently moving along using only sunlight as a means of propulsion.
This is, of course, the sole reason the spacecraft was sent up there. The Planetary Society, the organization behind the project, says that over the past four days mission control back on Earth registered an increase in the craft's orbital high point by about 2 km (1.2 miles).
Since there's nothing up there that could cause this, the team attributed the movement to solar sailing.
This is not the first time humans have proven that sunlight can be used to propel ships. Back in 2010, Japanese spacecraft Ikaros showed this could be done. The LightSail is, however, the first to demonstrate it in Earth orbit.
"We're thrilled to announce mission success for LightSail 2," said in a statement LightSail program manager Bruce Betts.
"Our criteria was to demonstrate controlled solar sailing in a CubeSat by changing the spacecraft's orbit using only the light pressure of the Sun, something that's never been done before. I'm enormously proud of this team. It's been a long road and we did it."
Having reached an orbit not usually touched by humans - 720 km (447 miles) - the spacecraft was capable of sending back to Earth a couple of inspiring images two weeks ago. At the end of July, new photos were released, showing the solar sails themselves.
Sailing by solar power is one of those quirks Mother Nature likes to throw at us. It is propulsion by means of light, even though the particles responsible, photons, don't have any mass to push against the sails.
They do however have momentum, and quite a lot of it, which causes them to bounce back off the sail and transfer some of that momentum to the sail.
There's even possible to change direction in space by changing the angle of the sail relative the Sun.
Since there's nothing up there that could cause this, the team attributed the movement to solar sailing.
This is not the first time humans have proven that sunlight can be used to propel ships. Back in 2010, Japanese spacecraft Ikaros showed this could be done. The LightSail is, however, the first to demonstrate it in Earth orbit.
"We're thrilled to announce mission success for LightSail 2," said in a statement LightSail program manager Bruce Betts.
"Our criteria was to demonstrate controlled solar sailing in a CubeSat by changing the spacecraft's orbit using only the light pressure of the Sun, something that's never been done before. I'm enormously proud of this team. It's been a long road and we did it."
Having reached an orbit not usually touched by humans - 720 km (447 miles) - the spacecraft was capable of sending back to Earth a couple of inspiring images two weeks ago. At the end of July, new photos were released, showing the solar sails themselves.
Sailing by solar power is one of those quirks Mother Nature likes to throw at us. It is propulsion by means of light, even though the particles responsible, photons, don't have any mass to push against the sails.
They do however have momentum, and quite a lot of it, which causes them to bounce back off the sail and transfer some of that momentum to the sail.
There's even possible to change direction in space by changing the angle of the sail relative the Sun.
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