Planetary Society planning another solar sail

Published: Jul 26, 2005
Source: aviationnow.ecnext.com



While still trying to sort out precisely what happened to its Cosmos-1 solar sail spacecraft, the Planetary Society hopes to be able to build and launch another solar sail by the end of next year, according to Director Louis Friedman.

"We're going to make plans to try and do Cosmos-1 again and to have another attempt at flying the first solar sail mission," Friedman told The DAILY. "We have a lot of ground spares and we could probably build a spacecraft fairly quickly ... maybe in a year."

Cosmos-1 was lost June 21 when its Volna rocket failed shortly after liftoff from a submerged Russian submarine in the Barents Sea. In 2001 a suborbital solar sail test spacecraft built by the society also was lost in a Volna mishap.

The society plans to seek another launch vehicle for its next try. The spacecraft could launch on a Russian Dnepr, Soyuz-Fregat, or European Ariane 5 as a secondary payload, Friedman said. It also could fly as the sole payload on a smaller vehicle such Russia's Cosmos-3M.continue..