Cosmos 1
Solar sail project / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Cosmos 1 was a project by Cosmos Studios and The Planetary Society to test a solar sail in space. As part of the project, an uncrewed solar-sail spacecraft named Cosmos 1 was launched into space at 19:46:09 UTC (15:46:09 EDT) on 21 June 2005 from the submarine Borisoglebsk in the Barents Sea. However, a rocket failure prevented the spacecraft from reaching its intended orbit.[2] Once in orbit, the spacecraft was supposed to deploy a large sail, upon which photons from the Sun would push, thereby increasing the spacecraft's velocity (the contributions from the solar wind are similar, but of much smaller magnitude).
Mission type | Technology demonstration[1] |
---|---|
Operator | The Planetary Society |
Mission duration | Failed to orbit 30 days (planned) |
Spacecraft properties | |
Manufacturer | The Planetary Society |
Launch mass | 100 kg (220 lb) |
Dimensions | 30 m (98 ft) in diameter |
Start of mission | |
Launch date | 21 June 2005, 19:46:09 UTC |
Rocket | Volna |
Launch site | K-496 Borisoglebsk, Barents Sea |
Contractor | Makeyev Rocket Design Bureau |
End of mission | |
Destroyed | Failed to orbit |
Orbital parameters | |
Reference system | Geocentric orbit (planned) |
Regime | Low Earth orbit |
Altitude | 800 km (500 mi) |
Inclination | 80.00° |
Had the mission been successful, it would have been the first ever orbital use of a solar sail to speed up a spacecraft, as well as the first space mission by a space advocacy group. The project budget was US$4 million. The Planetary Society planned to raise another US$4 million for Cosmos 2, a reimplementation of the experiment provisionally to be launched on a Soyuz resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The Discovery Channel was an early investor.[3] However, advances in technology and the greater availability of lower-mass piggyback slots on more launch vehicles led to a redesign similar to NanoSail-D, called LightSail-1, announced in November 2009.[4]