Author Topic: Nasa's first experimental Solar Sail - Groundbased Images (Read 9657 times)

ralfvandebergh · « **on:** 04/04/2025 02:27 pm »

Nanosail-D2 was NASA's first experimental solarsail. I took the first high-resolution images at the time. This reprocessing shows the deployed sail in never before seen detail. We see attitude, angle, shape and other information of the sail in low Earth orbit.

The sail was just 3 meters wide, this image is taken from 667 km distance. More info on Nanosail-D2: https://www.eoportal.org/satellite-missions/nanosail-d2#experiment

Ralf Vandebergh

Robotbeat · « **Reply #1 on:** 04/04/2025 03:21 pm »

Quote from: ralfvandebergh on 04/04/2025 02:27 pm

Nanosail-D2 was NASA's first experimental solarsail. I took the first high-resolution images at the time. This reprocessing shows the deployed sail in never before seen detail. We see attitude, angle, shape and other information of the sail in low Earth orbit.

The sail was just 3 meters wide, this image is taken from 667 km distance. More info on Nanosail-D2: https://www.eoportal.org/satellite-missions/nanosail-d2#experiment

Ralf Vandebergh

Can you please take some images of ACS3??

ralfvandebergh · « **Reply #2 on:** 04/05/2025 07:45 pm »

Thanks for asking, I will go for a try as soon as conditions allow. The orbit is much higher then Nanosail and the size is the same I believe. So I don't expect similar resolution.

But it will be certainly interesting what eventually can be resolved.

Ralf

Robotbeat · « **Reply #3 on:** 04/05/2025 10:59 pm »

Quote from: ralfvandebergh on 04/05/2025 07:45 pm

Thanks for asking, I will go for a try as soon as conditions allow. The orbit is much higher then Nanosail and the size is the same I believe. So I don't expect similar resolution.

But it will be certainly interesting what eventually can be resolved.

Ralf

That is very cool.

ralfvandebergh · « **Reply #4 on:** 04/05/2025 11:18 pm »

I was wrong about the size of ACS3, it is 9 meters each side. So even more interesting.

ralfvandebergh · « **Reply #5 on:** 04/09/2025 02:05 pm »

NanoSail-D2 ground deployment test (image credit: NASA/MSFC)

Robotbeat · « **Reply #6 on:** 04/09/2025 03:35 pm »

I DMed you.

ralfvandebergh · « **Reply #7 on:** 04/22/2025 03:13 pm »

Nanosail-D2 imaging - Background story:
https://spaceweathergallery2.com/indiv_upload.php?upload_id=222228

catdlr · « **Reply #8 on:** 09/29/2025 10:13 pm »

Quote

Brett Krieger@BrettKrieger12
·

$RKLB has been awarded $546k by NASA to develop Gen 1 Solar Sail mission concepts

T0412 Gen1 Solar Sail Demonstration refers to NASA's Advanced Composite Solar Sail System (ACS3), a technology demonstration mission that successfully deployed a large solar sail in low-Earth orbit in 2024

Rocket Lab provided launch services in 2024 while NanoAvionics provided the spacecraft bus

Cross-post to Rocket Lab
https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=46744.msg2721962#msg2721962