The Planetary Society will go ahead with an orbital test of Cosmos 1, the first solar sail spacecraft, despite failure of a suborbital test in July.
Analysis of the failed test shows the problem was caused by the Volna rocket, a converted Russian intercontinental ballistic missile launched from a submarine.
鈥淭he error had nothing to do with the payload or solar sail spacecraft,鈥� said Viacheslav Danyelkin, deputy director of the Makeev Rocket Design Bureau at a Wednesday press conference in California.
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That finding and an insurance settlement led the Planetary Society to decide to go direct to an orbital test, said the group鈥檚 executive director, Louis Friedman.
Crash and burn
The 20 July test was supposed to demonstrate that a pair of 15-metre blades could unfurl properly in space. It failed when the third stage of the Russian rocket failed to produce the normal thrust, causing the on-board computer to stop separation of the payload from the rocket.
The test craft and final stage crashed in Kamchatka and have not been found. Russian engineers say the failure came after a string of 146 consecutive successful flights.
Rather than wait to repeat the failed test, the Planetary Society will build a pair of satellites, each with eight blades that unfurl to form a 30-meter solar sail. Friedman said the first launch will be sometime this winter on a Volna rocket.
That rocket will undergo another suborbital test in October for the European Space Agency, and Friedman says 鈥測ou can believe that we鈥檙e going to be watching it鈥�.
Light beam
If Cosmos 1 reaches orbit, controllers will open the solar sail and see how sunlight affects the spacecraft鈥檚 orbit as they manoeuvre the blades.
鈥淭he important thing is to test the deployment and controls,鈥� Friedman said.
The second spacecraft will serve as a backup, or could be used for further tests. The entire program will cost $4 million, largely sponsored by Cosmos Studios, a producer of documentary videos based in Los Angeles.