NASA's Advanced Composite Solar Sail System (ACS3) will be visible from the ground. Find out when you can see it on the NASA app on a mobile device.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
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TechTranscript
00:00A NASA solar sail that you can spot from the ground?
00:04There's a new opportunity to observe a bright NASA spacecraft
00:08sailing across the night sky.
00:10NASA's Advanced Composite Solar Sail System, or ACS-3,
00:14is a small satellite that's testing new technologies in low-Earth orbit.
00:18It recently deployed its 30-foot-wide solar sails.
00:22These are a means of propulsion that could allow small spacecraft
00:25to sail on sunlight.
00:27The ACS-3 solar sails are highly reflective
00:30and make the spacecraft appear nearly as bright as Sirius,
00:34the brightest star in the sky.
00:36You can find out when the solar sail spacecraft will pass over your location
00:40using the NASA app on your mobile device.
00:43Stay up to date on NASA's missions exploring the solar system and beyond
00:47at science.nasa.gov.
00:50I'm Preston Dyches from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
00:53and that's What's Up for this month.
00:55NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology