The Planetary Society
LightSail-1 is a solar sail project scheduled for launch in April 2016 and developed by The Planetary Society, a global non-profit organization devoted to space exploration. The kite-shaped spacecraft, which was announced in 2009, will have a total cross-section of 32 square meters (340 sq ft), and will be fitted with guidance and diagnostic electronics. At 1504 UT on Wednesday, May 20 the first of The Planetary Society’s two LightSail spacecraft blasted off into space aboard an Atlas V rocket with the X-37B space shuttle. Deployment of LightSail took place at 17:05:40.620 UT. The mission is a shakedown cruise designed to test out the CubeSat’s critical systems. LightSail-A’s reentry occured around 17:23 UTC on the July 15th near the South Atlantic Ocean.
NASA-Catalog: 40661
Beacon
437.435 MHz, 9k6 FSK AX.25
Call
KK6HIT
Status
DECAYED
Mission
The sail started deploying at 1947 UT on June 7, 2015. A fully deployed sail would result in LightSail’s orbit decaying rapidly and burning up in the atmosphere potentially within a matter of days.
Telemetry
2015-05-31 11:43:10.970 UTC: from KK6HIT-1 to N6CP-X (UI, payload: 248 byte) 000 > C0 00 9C 6C 86 A0 5A B0 00 96 96 6C 90 92 A8 03 03 CC 45 00 020 > 00 F8 00 00 40 00 40 11 11 2D 81 41 93 21 81 41 93 24 C3 50 040 > C6 70 00 E4 4B 91 02 00 00 A8 41 00 00 B0 41 00 00 00 00 00 060 > 00 00 00 E1 28 8C 40 A1 BF 50 3D 81 EB 51 40 5B 60 0F 3D 80 080 > 6E A2 40 04 FE 90 3E 4A 7E 44 3C 74 42 E8 B9 A8 01 83 3B 9A 100 > 07 B0 BA EA 41 00 00 39 AD 00 00 00 00 00 00 17 92 00 00 02 120 > 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 1D 25 12 0B 01 B2 07 00 DE 140 > 60 DF 20 DE A0 E0 A0 00 00 00 03 00 03 00 03 00 03 00 03 00 160 > 03 00 03 00 03 09 8C 66 70 00 00 6F 80 0D 50 6F 80 13 B8 65 180 > 80 00 00 6F 00 00 90 65 30 FF F8 64 30 FF F8 65 40 00 00 01 200 > 0B FB CF 01 15 00 15 00 1A 00 1A 00 20 00 25 00 1F 00 1C 00 220 > 18 00 00 00 00 01 96 00 1A 00 7F 01 18 00 35 00 07 01 8A 00 240 > DB DD 00 25 00 E4 00 25 00 59 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 260 > 0F 00 40 00 00 80 40 C0
00: RTC =1814682 [s] 01: UserTime =2191 [jiffies] 02: SystemTime =12216 [jiffies] 03: Processes =9967 04: Processes_Running =2 05: Processes_Blocked =0 06: Uplink_RX_Counter =1 07: Atmel_Volt =4.523987 [V] 08: Atmel_Curr =0.043121 [A] 09: DaughtAPwr_Volt =0.007996 [V] 10: DaughtAPwr_Curr =0.000000 [A] 11: DaughtATmp =12.500000 [C] 12: DaughtBPwr_Volt =0.003998 [V] 13: DaughtBPwr_Curr =-0.000900 [A] 14: DaughtBTmp =12.500000 [C] 15: FiveV_PlPwr_Volt =4.915985 [V] 16: FiveV_PlPwr_Curr =0.279999 [A] 17: ThreeV_PlPwr_Volt =3.279999 [V] 18: ThreeV_PlPwr_Curr =0.033188 [A] 19: SP1_Temp =-30.750000 [C] 20: SP2_Temp =-30.750000 [C] 21: SP3_Temp =-30.500000 [C] 22: SP4_Temp =-28.500000 [C] 23: SP5_Temp =0.000000 [C] 24: Power0_In =0.000188 [A] 25: Power1_Out =0.000188 [A] 26: Power2_In =0.000188 [A] 27: Power3_Out =0.000000 [A] 28: Power4_In =0.000188 [A] 29: Power5_Out =0.000188 [A] 30: Power6_In =0.000188 [A] 31: Power7_Out =0.000188 [A] 32: Power8 =-1.895250 [A] 33: Batt0_Voltage =4.382240 [V] 34: Batt0_Current =224.687507 [mA] 35: Batt1_Voltage =4.396880 [V] 36: Batt1_Current =190.468756 [mA] 37: Batt2_Voltage =4.387120 [V] 38: Batt2_Current =116.718754 [mA] 39: Batt3_Voltage =4.377360 [V] 40: Batt3_Current =220.937507 [mA] 41: Batt4_Voltage =4.392000 [V] 42: Batt4_Current =10.000000 [mA] 43: Batt5_Voltage =4.148000 [V] 44: Batt5_Current =-0.781250 [mA] 45: Batt6_Voltage =4.377360 [V] 46: Batt6_Current =310.312510 [mA] 47: Batt7_Voltage =4.382240 [V] 48: Batt7_Current =304.218760 [mA] 49: Gyro_Sens_1 =6.387500 [deg/s] 50: Gyro_Sens_2 =2.175000 [deg/s] 51: Gyro_Sens_3 =-0.462500 [deg/s] 52: Sun_Sens1_X =36.900002 [deg] 53: Sun_Sens1_Y =72.000000 [deg] 54: Sun_Sens2_X =45.000000 [deg] 55: Sun_Sens2_Y =58.500000 [deg] 56: Sun_Sens3_X =50.400002 [deg] 57: Sun_Sens3_Y =55.799999 [deg] 58: Sun_Sens4_X =39.599998 [deg] 59: Sun_Sens4_Y =47.700001 [deg] 60: Sun_Sens5_X =180.000000 [deg] 61: Sun_Sens5_Y =180.000000 [deg] 62: Mag_Sens1_X =252 [mG] 63: Mag_Sens1_Y =3 [mG] 64: Mag_Sens1_Z =292 [mG] 65: Mag_Sens2_X =136 [mG] 66: Mag_Sens2_Y =140 [mG] 67: Mag_Sens2_Z =340 [mG] 68: Mag_Sens3_X =209 [mG] 69: Mag_Sens3_Y =143 [mG] 70: Mag_Sens3_Z =60 [mG] 71: Mag_Sens4_X =384 [mG] 72: Mag_Sens4_Y =347 [mG] 73: Mag_Sens4_Z =37 [mG] 74: Torque_Curr_X =0 [A] 75: Torque_Curr_Y =0 [A] 76: Torque_Curr_Z =0 [A] 77: Panel_Switch_Status =f 78: Motor_Current_Position =0 [Counts] 79: Camera_0_onOff =0 80: Camera_1_onOff =0 81: Sail_stowedDeployed =0 82: Motor_onOff =0 83: Camera_0_Remaining_Pics=0 84: Camera_1_Remaining_Pics=0 85: Bang_onOff =1 86: Sail_Damping_Executed =0 87: Pib_Met =4.000000 [s]
LightSail spin analysis
RF field strength plot shows ~ 8.5 deg/s (June 11, 2015 02:10 UTC)
the most recent telemetry (which is a bit old now) shows rates of
X = 7.225000 [deg/s]
Y = -0.300000 [deg/s]
Z = -0.087500 [deg/s]
7 deg/s is rather fast, but not as fast as we saw pre-deployment.
12.07.2015 – all my nightly passes at 23:43 UTC, 01:30 UTC and 03:08 UTC
QSL Card
