NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

For release: 08-09-04
Photo release #: 04-208

NASA team successfully deploys two solar sail systems

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A four-quadrant solar sail system sits fully deployed in a 100-foot-diameter vacuum chamber at NASA's Glenn Research Center Plum Brook Station in Sandusky, Ohio. NASA's solar sail propulsion team at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., and its industry partner, L'Garde, Inc., of Tustin, Calif., successfully deployed the solar sail system during testing at the Plum Brook facility in early July 2004. The tests included temperatures as cold as minus 112 degrees Fahrenheit to simulate conditions of open space. Data from the test series will be used to make improvements to future solar sail designs and modeling. Solar sail propulsion uses the Sun's energy to travel through space, thus requiring no onboard propellant -- reducing payload mass. The work being done by L'Garde is led by the In-Space Propulsion Technology Projects Office at the Marshall Center. (NASA/L'Garde, Inc.)

 

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A single-quadrant, 10-meter solar sail system sits fully deployed in a 50-foot-diameter vacuum chamber at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va. NASA's solar sail propulsion team at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., and its industry partner, Able Engineering, of Goleta, Calif., successfully deployed the solar sail system during testing at the Langley facility over a five-week period from April to May 2004. Data from the test series will be used to make improvements to future solar sail designs and modeling. Solar sail propulsion uses the Sun's energy to travel through space, thus requiring no onboard propellant -- reducing payload mass. The work being done by L'Garde is led by the In-Space Propulsion Technology Projects Office at the Marshall Center. (NASA/Able Engineering)

Contact Kim Newton Media Relations Dept. Marshall Space Flight Ctr. (256) 544-0034

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