Planetary Society’s LightSail deploys and sends first images back to Earth after troubled launch
AN ocean of troubles beset them. The tide of time was against them. But persistence has prevailed — and a light sail has unfurled — opening up new possibilities in space travel.
AN ocean of troubles beset them. The tide of time was against them. But persistence has prevailed — and a light sail has unfurled — opening up new possibilities in space travel.
The vessel puffs her sail … and souls that have toiled and wrought and thought rest easy today.
With apologies to Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s “Ulysses”, the non-profit Planetary Society’s LightSail project has nevertheless been yearning in desire to follow knowledge like a sinking star… And almost lost it.
Only work of noble note saved the shoebox-sized satellite from not shining in use.
It was beset with challenges after being boosted into orbit on May 20.
Shortly after separating from the rocket, the experiment began experiencing problems. A coding problem caused a memory leak — and the LightSail’s on-board computer eventually “froze”.
The Society’s only hope was for a wayward cosmic ray to strike the processor chip, forcing it to reboot.
Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods, this happened. And sooner than expected.
The LightSail restarted. The lights began to twinkle on displays.
Some work of noble note may yet be done.
But fate was again cruel: There were problems with the satellites battery. Contact was intermittent.
The experiment to unfurl a sail made of ultra-thin reflective plastic seemed doomed to fail.
How dull it is to pause, to make an end.
So the ground team persisted: Striving, seeking — not yielding.
Finally, earlier this week, the batteries stabilised and communications held sufficiently for the sail to be deployed.
This was eventually confirmed when an image was successfully beamed back to Earth of the extended masts and sail.
There is some tinkering yet to be done, the Planetary Society says. The booms are to be deployed further to adjust the tension on the sail.
So what’s next?
Another LightSail will be launched next year. It will be placed in a higher orbit — where it is hoped it will sail beyond the sunset …
Approx top down reprojection of the #LightSail image. cc @jasondavis @elakdawalla @exploreplanets pic.twitter.com/pn2wJFQ30y
— James Canvin (@nivnac) June 9, 2015
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