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Carl Saga's solar spacecraft is one step closer to becoming a reality after Planetary Society's successful test flight for LightSail.

LighSail, a Carl Sagan-inspired solar spacecraft, has finally spread its sails, giving Planetary Society, especially its head Bill Nye, a reason to celebrate.

Flight Test Success

On Sunday the solar spacecraft has deployed, opening up its 344 square feet of Mylar to the wide expanse of the space. This success surely gives the team the confidence it needs for the actual test in 2016, and the data gathered during this test will help iron out the glitches they encountered. Cameras mounted on the solar panels failed to capture photos, though.

Solar Sailing in 2016

In 2016 the solar spacecraft will be fully deployed to test whether its sails can actually catch sunlight to traverse longer space distance. This principle works in the same manner that sailboats are propelled by wind gusts, except that light serves as propellant.

Theoretically, the technology LightSail uses can significantly reduce the cost of deep space exploration as it will not require large amount of fuel that current spacecrafts do.

LighSail

LightSail uses its large and lightweight mirrored surfaces to capture light momentum. Majority of its momentum is transferred as light reflects off these sails, thus pushing on the sails. The resulting acceleration is small but can continuously push the sails to increase its speed.

Current Mission's Scope and Limitation

The spacecraft's orbit is too low "to overcome atmospheric drag and demonstrate actual solar sailing." And that is what this flight is all about: to iron out issues before "a second LightSail is to be deployed" to a higher orbit in 2016. In this regard, this mission has been successful.

Interested folks can catch a glimpse of LighSail depending on their location. Planetary Society has a dedicated webpage for this where people can track the craft relative to their location.

This modern concept of Carl Sagan's solar spacecraft is a citizen-funded project headed by Planetary Society. It costs about $5.3 million for the two LightSail missions. Hopefully, this mission's nightmares are over so the team can focus on actual testing.