Dr. Bruce Betts, The Planetary Society

"The LightSail 2 Solar Sailing Mission"

ABSTRACT -- Launched June 25, 2019 and still operating in Earth orbit, The Planetary Society's LightSail 2 mission has demonstrated, for the first time, controlled solar sail propulsion using a CubeSat platform. Solar sailing does not require fuel. It uses the momentum of light itself for propulsion. LightSail 2 deployed a Mylar sail the size of a boxing ring from a spacecraft the size of a loaf of bread. It is a technology demonstrator feeding forward toward future solar sail propelled small spacecraft for deep-space exploration. The LightSail program is entirely privately funded through contributions from Planetary Society members and donors worldwide. This talk will present an overview of the LightSail program and the LightSail 2 mission including solar sailing strategies, orbital evolution, lessons learned, and pretty pictures. More information on the LightSail program can be found at sail.planetary.org.

SPEAKER -- Bruce Betts, Ph.D., Chief Scientist and LightSail Program Manager for The Planetary Society, is a planetary scientist, project manager, and children's book author. He has a Stanford B.S. (Physics/Math) and M.S. (Applied Physics, emphasis Astronomy) and a Caltech Ph.D. (Planetary Science). He researched planetary surfaces. He was a NASA Headquarters Discipline Scientist, and is an Alumnus Senior Scientist with Planetary Science Institute. He provides fun space info through his Twitter feed @RandomSpaceFact, on Planetary Radio, and in his Random Space Fact videos and online Intro Astronomy class. He is the author of several children's space books including Astronomy for Kids and Super Cool Space Facts.

Next Colloquium, June 7th: "Mercury Rising: John Glenn, John Kennedy, and the New Battleground of the Cold War", Jeff Shesol

Engineering Colloquium home page: https://ecolloq.gsfc.nasa.gov