An artist's concept of NASA's Advanced Composite Solar Sail System spacecraft in orbit as the Sun crests Earth's horizon. next-generation solar sail technology – known as the– will launch aboard Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket from the company’s Launch Complex 1 in Māhia, New Zealand. The technology could advance future space travel and expand our understanding of our Sun and solar system.
Like a sailboat turning to capture the wind, the solar sail can adjust its orbit by angling its sail. After evaluating the boom deployment, the mission will test a series of maneuvers to change the spacecraft’s orbit and gather data for potential future missions with even larger sails. With its large sail, the spacecraft may be visible from Earth if the lighting conditions are just right. Once fully expanded and at the proper orientation, the sail’s reflective material will be as bright as Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky.
This boom design could potentially support future solar sails as large as 5,400 square feet , about the size of a basketball court, and technology resulting from the mission’s success could support sails of up to 21,500 square feet – about half a soccer field.