NASA deploys loaf-sized NanoSail-D into space

The solar sail technology has created quite a buzz recently and we’ve sent the Ikaros being successfully deployed into space by the Japanese. Now, NASA has launched an experimental micro-satellite from a larger, solar powered satellite, the first agency to do so, called the NanoSail-D. Deployed from the Fast, Affordable, Science and Technology Satellite (FASTSAT), NASA hopes to clean up space debris using this technology. Now there’s a load of deploying being done here, so get a hold of this. The FATSAT was sent into space on November 19th with a load of experiments aboard, including the NanoSail-D. The NanoSail-D was deployed into space, the size of a bread loaf, attached to a Poly Pico-Satellite Orbital Deployer, and after a three day countdown deployed a gossamer-thin solar sail stretching 100 feet.

Also, once all the tests required are performed, the little NanoSail-D will self destruct and burn up in space.
[inhabitat]