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Go Volna! Go Cosmos!
The Cosmos I spacecraft will set sail on the 26th.
Solar Sail Soars Into Space
By Leonard David
Senior Space Writer
posted: 21 June 2005
4:00 p.m. ET
A privately-backed solar sail soared into space Tuesday on a mission to use sunlight to fly through space.
A Russian Volna rocket was used to loft the solar sail-propelled spacecraft, known as Cosmos 1 to its builders. The converted Cold War missile shot skyward at about 3:46 p.m. EDT (1946 GMT) from its Russian nuclear submarine launch pad positioned beneath the Barents Sea.
The Cosmos 1 solar sail was housed on the tip of the Volna rocket, which was launched by the Russian Navy.
Cosmos 1 is expected to orbit the Earth at roughly a 500 mile (800 kilometer) altitude. It will gradually raise its orbit by solar sailing – using the pressure of light particles – photons --from the Sun upon its luminous sails.
The $4 million solar sailing project is an undertaking of The Planetary Society, a public space advocacy group headquartered in Pasadena, California. The effort is sponsored by Cosmos Studios, a science-based entertainment company located in Ithaca, New York.
Cosmos 1 was built by the Lavochkin Association and the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Russia.
Anxious minutes and days ahead
Cosmos 1 is designed to orbit the Earth at an altitude of over 800 kilometers. It will gradually raise its orbit by solar sailing -- the pressure of light particles from the Sun upon its luminous sails.
Shortly before the rocket carrying the solar sail lifted off, Louis Friedman, Executive Director of The Planetary Society Project Director anxiously awaited at Lavochkin. “Everything is basically ok, and we are relaxed here. Except me…I am not relaxed.”
A little over six minutes after liftoff, Cosmos 1 is expected to separate from the Volna rocket.
Some ten minutes into its flight, the solar sail is to rise into view of a portable ground station situated at Petropavlovsk on Russia’s Kamchatka peninsula. Ground personnel there will listen for the first signal from Cosmos 1.
The next step is for a kick motor to start firing for some 231 seconds. This will inject the solar sail into Earth orbit.
Visible to the naked eye
If all has gone according to plan, Cosmos 1 will orbit the Earth once every 101 minutes. But launch is only the beginning for the Cosmos 1 spacecraft.
Planetary Society spokesperson Susan Lendroth told SPACE.com that several days’ worth of checks will be conducted to ensure Cosmos 1 is functioning properly.
If all checks out, Cosmos 1 will be ready to unfurl its sails in four days.That’s enough time for all the air that might have been trapped in the solar sails when they were packed to leak out to the vacuum of space. Cosmos 1 is designed to inflate hollow tubes along the edge of each of its eight sail blades with nitrogen gas, with four blades deploying at a time, mission managers said.
Once the sails are unfurled, the schedule calls for rotation of the sail blades, followed by use of the blades to control orientation of spacecraft.
With sails unfurled, Cosmos 1 will be bright enough to be easily visible to the naked eye.
By Leonard David
Senior Space Writer
posted: 21 June 2005
4:00 p.m. ET
A privately-backed solar sail soared into space Tuesday on a mission to use sunlight to fly through space.
A Russian Volna rocket was used to loft the solar sail-propelled spacecraft, known as Cosmos 1 to its builders. The converted Cold War missile shot skyward at about 3:46 p.m. EDT (1946 GMT) from its Russian nuclear submarine launch pad positioned beneath the Barents Sea.
The Cosmos 1 solar sail was housed on the tip of the Volna rocket, which was launched by the Russian Navy.
Cosmos 1 is expected to orbit the Earth at roughly a 500 mile (800 kilometer) altitude. It will gradually raise its orbit by solar sailing – using the pressure of light particles – photons --from the Sun upon its luminous sails.
The $4 million solar sailing project is an undertaking of The Planetary Society, a public space advocacy group headquartered in Pasadena, California. The effort is sponsored by Cosmos Studios, a science-based entertainment company located in Ithaca, New York.
Cosmos 1 was built by the Lavochkin Association and the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Russia.
Anxious minutes and days ahead
Cosmos 1 is designed to orbit the Earth at an altitude of over 800 kilometers. It will gradually raise its orbit by solar sailing -- the pressure of light particles from the Sun upon its luminous sails.
Shortly before the rocket carrying the solar sail lifted off, Louis Friedman, Executive Director of The Planetary Society Project Director anxiously awaited at Lavochkin. “Everything is basically ok, and we are relaxed here. Except me…I am not relaxed.”
A little over six minutes after liftoff, Cosmos 1 is expected to separate from the Volna rocket.
Some ten minutes into its flight, the solar sail is to rise into view of a portable ground station situated at Petropavlovsk on Russia’s Kamchatka peninsula. Ground personnel there will listen for the first signal from Cosmos 1.
The next step is for a kick motor to start firing for some 231 seconds. This will inject the solar sail into Earth orbit.
Visible to the naked eye
If all has gone according to plan, Cosmos 1 will orbit the Earth once every 101 minutes. But launch is only the beginning for the Cosmos 1 spacecraft.
Planetary Society spokesperson Susan Lendroth told SPACE.com that several days’ worth of checks will be conducted to ensure Cosmos 1 is functioning properly.
If all checks out, Cosmos 1 will be ready to unfurl its sails in four days.That’s enough time for all the air that might have been trapped in the solar sails when they were packed to leak out to the vacuum of space. Cosmos 1 is designed to inflate hollow tubes along the edge of each of its eight sail blades with nitrogen gas, with four blades deploying at a time, mission managers said.
Once the sails are unfurled, the schedule calls for rotation of the sail blades, followed by use of the blades to control orientation of spacecraft.
With sails unfurled, Cosmos 1 will be bright enough to be easily visible to the naked eye.
Arguing about transliteration of Russian names 
.
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