The sunlight-propelled NEA Scout will investigate a little-known asteroid class, with a planned launch later this year.
will be one of 10 secondary payloads on the upcoming Artemis I uncrewed test flight . The satellite is only about the size of a shoebox, but the reflective sail that will haul it through space unfolds to
925 square feet. Gas thrusters will put the CubeSat on a trajectory for the nearby asteroid target, but the solar sail will do the propulsion work for the rest of the two-year journey. Solar sails harness the momentum of the Sun’s photons to propel spacecraft forward. Because rocket fuel is a in the weight of spacecraft and their lifetimes in space, it pays to need as little of it as possible. The bigger the solar sail, the more sunlight the craft can capture.
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