Photo: NASA Space sail into orbit (archive photo)

Key technology test of the solar sail runs smoothly, indicating the success of the mission by reviewing it.

Chinese scientists have successfully tested on-orbit functions of the first solar sail SIASAIL-I. it is reported by Xinhua on Tuesday, December 31.

It is noted that this solar sail has been developed by Shenyang Institute of automation under the Academy of Sciences of China.

“After the release of satellite platform on orbit solar sail performs technical inspection using two-stage deployment. In the first stage mechanism is used heat cutting and passive release, and the case of the solar sail is pushed out of sputniksweetheart and rotated 90 degrees,” he rasskazala Deputy head of the laboratory of space technology of automation Liu Ziggo.

The second stage is installation of the mast and the gradual unfolding of sails with a surface area of approximately 0.6 sq m, said the scientist.

According to the data obtained from the satellite, a key technology test of the solar sail runs smoothly, indicating the success of the mission by reviewing it.

Recall that a solar sail – a spacecraft powered by the pressure of reflected sunlight on the membrane. It consumes no chemical fuel and working environment while navigating, and features a low mass, large collection rate of expansion, low cost, low power consumption and long range.

A solar sail can be used in many fields, including the detection of asteroids, monitoring of geomagnetic storms, a study of polar solar rays and space debris removal.

Last week, China has carried out the third launch of its most powerful carrier rocket Changzheng-5 (long March 5). It can lead to low-earth orbit 25 tons of cargo, and the geostationary transfer orbit up to 14 tons.

News from