LightSail 2, The Planetary Society’s solar sailing spacecraft, just snapped its first photos of Earth and they show off our planet’s cool outline in space.
On July 5, flight controllers deployed the CubeSat’s dual-sided solar panels in the evening, while it flew south of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in California, according to a blog post from The Planetary Society. Moments later, the LightSail 2’s solar panel-mounted cameras captured images of a “crescent” Earth, while it traveled into an orbital sunset, Space.com reported. With these images, scientists can better understand what our planet’s silhouette looks like from a low Earth orbit position.
LightSail 2 snapped two main images during its space trip: One shows LightSail 2 “seeing” Earth, while the other shows LightSail 2’s view of Earth’s limb, complete with a spectraline.
LightSail 2 took a picture of Earth’s limb on July 6. (Photo Credit: The Planetary Society)
On July 6, at 12:41 a.m. EDT, LightSail 2 took a photo of our planet’s limb from a camera that was placed on its dual-sided solar panels. During this time, LightSail 2 was moving into orbital sunset (see the sun on the right side of the image). This photo, which is unmodified, details some lens flare artifacts that are caused by sunlight scattering around the camera optics. LightSail 2’s dual fisheye cameras possess fields of view of roughly 180 degrees, which causes the arcs in the corners of the image and some distortion overall.
LightSail 2 spots our planet, with spectraline in view. (Photo Credit: The Planetary Society)
Following the first Earth image, LightSail 2 snapped another photo of our planet at 12:42 a.m. on July 6. The photo was captured under similar conditions, however, the sun is just out of frame on the ride side of the image. This picture, which is also unmodified, shows a different detail. Notice the strange objects in the foreground, which are believed to be fragments of spectraline, a fishing-line like material that is used to hold panels closed prior to movement.
Photos of the interior of LightSail 2 before solar panel deployment. (Photo Credit: The Planetary Society)
In addition to moving LightSail 2’s solar panels and obtaining pictures, the LightSail 2 team also successfully activated LightSail 2’s momentum wheel and finished important tests to make sure it was ready to swing into and out of the sun’s rays each orbit during its solar sailing activity.
On June 25, LightSail 2 blasted off aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. On July 2, LightSail 2 communicated with its team on Earth and started some checkouts to demonstrate that its systems were operating well. Currently, LightSail 2 members are preparing LightSail 2 for sail deployment, which is expected to take place today.
Space fans can follow LightSail 2’s mission thanks to an online tool provided by The Planetary Society. A new dashboard and website will show the status of the satellite as it circles around our planet. The aim of the LightSail 2 mission is to test a solar sail’s functionality in Earth orbit as it’s pushed by photons released by the sun.
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