Space News reports that NASA has canceled the Sunjammer solar sail mission: Citing a lack of confidence in its contractor’s ability to deliver, NASA has abandoned plans to fly a solar-sail mission in 2015 after investing four years and more than $21 million on the project. The Sunjammer mission, including the spacecraft and a deployable 1,200-square-meter solar sail, was being developed by L’Garde Inc. of Tustin, California, under a contract […]
NASA EDGE looks at three more Technology Demonstration Missions; the Deep Space Atomic Clock, Solar Sails and the Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator.
Video Caption: In November 2014, NASA will launch the Sunjammer with the worlds largest solar sail, which will unfurl from the compact spacecraft.
Sunjammer Mission Education Director Bryan Weber talks to students about the program. (Credit: Sunjammer Mission)
Tustin, Calif. (Sunjammer Mission PR) — Twelve students from Palm Middle School in Moreno Valley, Calif., joined the engineers and scientists at L’Garde, Inc. to present on solar sails and learn about NASA’s Sunjammer mission as part of its new Learning Center initiative, a program to engage students worldwide in the future of space travel.
Sunjammer deployment test.
Tustin, CA (Sunjammer Mission PR) — NASA officials, team partners, and local students were on hand to witness a key milestone for the Sunjammer Mission as it successfully deployed a quadrant of its solar sail – a critical design component that will eventually herald an era of propellantless spacecraft. Sunjammer will be the largest solar sail ever flown using photonic pressure (or sunlight) to maneuver in space.
Sunjammer solar sail. (Credit: L’Garde)
WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — The concept of a huge, ultra-thin sail unfurling in space, using the pressure of sunlight to provide propellant-free transport, hovering and exploration capabilities, may seem like the stuff of science fiction, but a NASA research team developing the Technology Demonstration Mission known as Sunjammer (a.k.a., In-Space Demonstration of a Mission-Capable Solar Sail) intend to prove the viability and value of the technology in 2014.
