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NASA recently began operating an 80 square meter solar sail in space that shines brighter than stars. You can see it with the naked eye. An app shows where you have to look.
NASA’s solar sail is visible to the naked eye from Earth. When unfolded it is about the size of half a tennis court. (Source: NASA)
- In April, the space agency NASA sent a solar sail into space for testing purposes.
- The awning has been fully unfolded for a few days.
- When illuminated by the sun, it is clearly visible from Earth. Then the solar sail shines brighter than the brightest star.
The view of the night sky is a new attraction for hobby astronomers and space fans. NASA has commissioned the so-called Advanced Composite Solar Sail System (ACS3). It is a solar sail with a strut length of around seven meters. When fully unfolded, the reflective material covers 80 square meters.
The space agency wants to test to what extent such solar sails are suitable for powering larger spaceships. They also want to improve the folding mechanism and research materials. Such solar sails play a key role in space exploration. At the beginning of September, NASA released a time-lapse video via the short message service X showing ACS3 moving through the night sky.
You can use augmented reality to see where the solar sail is in its orbit via the NASA app. Once you have “spotted” it, you can see the sail with the naked eye under good conditions, just like the ISS.
As the space agency explains in the video embedded above, such sails could power spaceships in the future. Much like the wind moves sailing ships on the sea, photons from the solar wind hitting the solar sail could propel spaceships forward. You can find further information here at NASA.
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