NanoSail-D @ Nanosats Database

Name	NanoSail-D
Type	CubeSat
Units or mass	3U
Organisation	NASA Marshall Space Flight Center
Institution	Space agency
Entity	Government (Civil / Military)
Nation	US
Launch brokerer	Cal Poly, ?
Oneliner	Deploy solar sail for deorbiting.
Description	Establish ARC-MSFC collaborative relationship for future small satellite initiatives. Deploy a 10 m² solar sail leveraging work by MSFC approved under the SMD In-Space Propulsion Program. Demo Orbital Debris Mitigation technology – drag sail. Ground Imaging to reduce spacecraft instrumentation. Add to flight experience – ARC Bus "light" experience. The sail is made of an ultra-thin reflective polymer called CP-1. It is 7.5 microns thick and has a surface area of approximately 10 square meters. The sail is wound tightly around a central hub. When the sail deploys, four booms spring out to unfurl the sail and support its structure. The booms are each 2.2 meters long when fully deployed. The nine-pound sail subsystem was provided by ManTech/NeXolve in Huntsville, Ala.
Sources	[1] [2]
Photo Sources	[1]
Keywords	Solar sail, Propulsion

Related Spacecraft

Name	Status	Launch	Orbit
NanoSail-D	Launch failure	2008-08-03	Launch failure
NanoSail-D2	Was operational until 2011-01-21, 4 days, batteries were drained. Deployed from FASTSAT on 2011-01-17.	2010-11-20	630 km, 72 deg