Projects: LightSail - The Future of Solar Sailing
LightSail: A Multi-Mission Project
The Planetary Society’s three-mission project -- called LightSail -- is an innovative plan to launch three separate spacecraft over the course of several years, with each mission reaching farther into space than the last.
LightSail 1
Our first solar sail will lay the foundation for the whole LightSail program by demonstrating controlled flight with only the pressure of solar photons bouncing off the sail.
LightSail 2
This mission will be more ambitious. It will last months and begin the application of solar sails for reaching beyond Earth. Carrying a larger payload of scientific instruments, it will aim both to provide new data -- including Earth measurements -- and further refine our
solar sailing skills.
LightSail 3
This will be the crowning achievement. LightSail 3 will be mission to demonstrate that solar sails can provide an early-warning station for geomagnetic storms triggered by eruptions from the Sun, and so fill a pressing need to protect technological civilization natural disaster.
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LightSail-1
Artists rendition of LightSail-1 by Rick Sternbach.
Credit: Planetary Society
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