SOLAR sails just can’t find a fair wind. Another space mission intended to prove the technology, which is designed to propel spacecraft using only the pressure of sunlight, has failed to reach space safely. It is the third such setback since 2001.
NASA’s NanoSail-D spacecraft, a 9-kilogram vessel no bigger than a loaf of bread, was supposed to reach orbit on Saturday and unfurl four solar sails with a combined area of 9 square metres. It never got the chance because its ride, a Falcon 1 rocket built by PayPal founder Elon Musk’s company SpaceX, broke down when the first and second stages failed to separate.
In 2001 and 2005, two earlier solar-sail missions spearheaded by US-based space advocacy group the Planetary Society were also scuppered by launch vehicle failures. Although NASA has no immediate plans for further solar sail missions, the Planetary Society is seeking funds for another demonstration craft called Cosmos-2, which it hopes to launch aboard a Soyuz Fregat rocket – a vehicle with a long and excellent track record.
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