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NASA's solar sail successfully spreads its wings in space (www.space.com)

submitted 10 months ago by kalkulat@lemmy.world to c/science@lemmy.world

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[-] LarmyOfLone@lemm.ee 15 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

This NASA video is pretty amazing. I was wondering how they did the booms and they are soft carbon fiber tubes rolled up on spools. I was imagining that you could simply spin the sail and use centrifugal force to expand it.

Maybe someone can answer me this: I've always wondered if a solar sail can only generate momentum away from the sun or if it can be angled to create momentum in other direction. Since the light is reflected and not absorbed, angling it e.g. 45° you change the "momentum" of the photons. That should also change the momentum impacted on the solar sail and spacecraft. Right?

[-] kalkulat@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago

Haven't heard about the NASA design yet, but JAXA's 2010 IKAROS used "Eighty blocks of LCD panels are embedded in the sail, whose reflectance can be adjusted for attitude contro ".

[-] LarmyOfLone@lemm.ee 1 points 10 months ago

Oh wow interesting. So using LCD is more efficient in weight than using motors to tilt the sails? Or maybe the advantage is not having to counter any sail movement with gyroscopes... which cost energy too.