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After a busy initial flight phase, which will last about two months and includes subsystems checkout, the microwave oven-sized CubeSat will deploy its reflective solar sail. The weeks-long test consists of a series of pointing maneuvers to demonstrate orbit raising and lowering, using only the pressure of sunlight acting on the sail.
NASA's Advanced Composite Solar Sail System aims to prove its ability to sail across space, increasing access and enabling low-cost missions to the moon, Mars, and beyond.
Provided by NASA
Citation: NASA to hoist its sail: Solar sail mission gets ready for launch (2024, April 17) retrieved 17 April 2024 from https://phys.org/news/2024-04-nasa-hoist-solar-mission-ready.html
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