LightSail 2: Fulfilling a Dream

Carl Sagan dreamed of solar sailing before founding The Planetary Society in 1980. Now our members have helped us fulfill that dream.
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About The Planetary Society:
The Planetary Society has inspired millions of people to explore other worlds and seek other life. With the mission to empower the world's citizens to advance space science and exploration, its international membership makes the non-governmental Planetary Society the largest space interest group in the world. Carl Sagan, Bruce Murray and Louis Friedman founded the Planetary Society in 1980. Bill Nye, a longtime member of The Planetary Society's Board, serves as CEO."

[@ronaldpouliot8858]

Seeing Bill Nye's reaction at 1:39 to the rocket lift off is just pure happiness. It makes me smile to see him so excited and passionate.

[@SeaJay_Oceans]

Sailing in Space, so quiet, so peaceful...

[@educatingspace]

Awesome work Planetary Society 🚀

[@ninefingerjack]

Progress in the face of willful ignorance. #imwithBill

[@joeyrodriguez]

Onward!

[@michaelaltun]

and outward

[@darthflash6994]

I cried Loved it

[@paulwiehe8354]

Good job

[@FinarfinNoldorin]

That brought tears to my eyes.. :)

[@mcpucho]

thank you

[@obes8]

so exciting

[@phonotical]

Would a lead sail be more efficient? Would you maybe cheat a little and give said sail an initial boost?

[@leofreitasa9933]

Lead would make it weigh more, so it would be less efficient, and an initial boost makes no difference in the light sail thrust

[@phonotical]

@@leofreitasa9933 it's in space, zero gravity, it weighs nothing

[@leofreitasa9933]

@@phonotical I meant mass, not weight, the more massive an object is, the more force you have to apply to have a change in velocity, also, there actually is gravity in space, but if you are in an orbit you wouldn't feel gravity because every part of your body is accelerating at the same time

[@j.jasonwentworth723]

Actually, a sodium sail might be the most reflective. (Sodium, while highly reactive under the Earth-surface conditions of our oxygen-bearing air and moisture, was proposed by the Germans [during World War II] as an excellent material for very thin orbiting space mirrors operating in the vacuum of space, to illuminate and possibly even burn areas on the ground using focused sunlight.) I don't know how well sodium would work structurally (as a sodium foil solar sail), but that is the ultimate goal, to develop all-metal, very thin (with no plastic film substrate, which adds mass) solar sails, as such low areal density sails would have much higher rates of acceleration, using either sunlight or laser light. (Dr. K. Eric Drexler designed such high-acceleration "lightsails," as he called them, which would be spun to rigidize them; their vacuum-deposited, space-manufactured aluminum sail material was only a few atoms thick, giving them very low areal densities--they are described in the 1990 book "Project Solar Sail," edited by Arthur C. Clarke.)

[@AstronomyLive]

👍👍👍👍

[@muditracks3640]

👏🏻❤️

[@hligfl]

What about the results ? Is it working or did the cubesat just took off haha xD

[@skepticsapiens4149]

Good job