The LightSail 2 mission burned up in the atmosphere after three years in space. The crowdfunded spaceship made 18,000 circles of the planet using its giant reflective sail and demonstrated that it is possible to sail on the sun.
LightSail has opened the way for solar sailing in space exploration. Bruce Betts is the Chief Scientist and LightSail program manager.
Future solar sailing missions would likely be in deep space. The requirements are slightly different because of that. The challenge was similar to sailing a sailboat in the harbor versus out in the ocean. LightSail had an easier time with issues than deep space missions, but had to keep going.
The biggest problem with using solar sailing for space exploration is that it takes a long time for the craft to travel. Betts said that the disadvantage was that the push from the sun was very small. The force that a housefly has when it sits on your hand, pushing down, is the same force that a sail pushes. The advantage of the method is that the force builds up over time, so you don't have to use up fuel.
NASA will be using solar sailing in upcoming programs. The best targets for these kinds of missions are within the inner solar system, as the craft stays close enough to the sun to get enough force from the sunlight to keep moving.
A type of exploration solar sailing that would not be possible using conventional systems is entering circles. The missions that go around the sun have to sit in certain regions to be in a stable position. It would use up a lot of fuel if you tried to get close to the sun. A solar sail can be used to maintain an elliptical path around the sun.
There is a lot of room for improvement. Researchers are interested in using lasers to push at sails and developing more sophisticated steering systems. The LightSail program was compared to learning to crawl by Betts.
One use for solar sailing is the ability to visit other star systems. Major technical challenges stand in the way of exploring beyond our solar system, which is still generations and generations away from being anything like a real possibility. The closest star systems would take tens of thousands of years to visit. As they travel, the solar sails could potentially reduce that timescale.
The most likely use of solar sailing isn't that it will replace chemical systems but that it will be a viable option in certain missions.
People will think about solar sailing in 10 or 20 years when they plan a mission. It will for some of them. It will be part of the decisions for a science mission. That is what we have contributed to with a single step.
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