If such a spacecraft can overcome Earths atmospheric drag, it has the potential to reach very high altitudes.
When unfurled, the sails were about the size of a boxing ring.
We were able to demonstrate sustained increase in our orbit altitude.
LightSail 2 completed 18,000 orbits around Earth before burning up in atmospheric reentry.Image: The Planetary Society
Throughout its mission, LightSail 2 enjoyed literal highs and lows.
It took some of the more subtle things to be able to actually control the spacecraft, Spencer said.
In total, it completed 18,000 orbits and traveled 5 million miles (8 million kilometers).
© Vicky Leta/Gizmodo
It was sunlight itself that was pushing on the comets dust particles, causing them to scatter.
One of the founders of The Planetary Society, Louis Friedman, developed a personal interest in solar sailing.
However, the solar sail was lost in a Russian rocket failure in 2005.
The spacecraft never made it to space.
LightSail 1 launched in May 2015 and was placed in low Earth orbit, but it encountered several problems.
A software glitch caused the initial solar sail deployment attempt to fail.
The missionendedwith the spacecrafts re-entry on June 15, 2015.
Thus, LightSail 2 was born.
Its execution, however, is a lot more complicated, which makes LightSail 2s achievements so impressive.
I think it was more challenging that I expected, personally, Spencer said.
We had to overcome some of these challenges to be able to see that sustained orbit raise over time.
The team was working with a shoestring budget, as they described it.
It was great once we got it up there and it kept surviving.
As it stands, however, LightSail 2 will not have a successor of its own.
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Worlds Oldest Satellite Has Been in Space for 67 Years.
