The Planetary Society, a Pasadena group co-founded by the late legendary astronomer Carl Sagan, next month will launch into space a test model of its “solar sail vehicle,” which navigates space by drawing energy from the sun’s rays.
Not only will the voyage mark the first time that a non-governmental organization has attempted a space mission, but it will be the first time a sun-driven space vehicle has been operational in orbit.
The sub-orbital flight next month (on a Russian rocket) is designed to test the deployment of two solar sail blades in a mission scheduled to last only 30 minutes, including 10 minutes in space.
If that test is successful, the full-sized 90-pound vehicle with eight solar blades is to be launched on a converted Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, to be shot from a Russian submarine in December or January 2002.
The full-sized model is being developed at the Babakin Space Center outside Moscow.
Russian and Planetary Society astronomers will jointly control next month’s demonstration of the solar sail technology.
The test flight and actual mission, privately funded at a combined cost of $4 million, is also seen as setting an example for NASA’s space exploration program.
“It’s a glorious venture because of the precedents we’re setting and because of the opportunity to actually go to space without the government,” said Louis Friedman, co-founder and executive director of the Planetary Society. “By not having a lot of bureaucracy involved, we’re keeping very, very focused on our near-term goal, which is to fly successfully. We don’t think we’ll replace NASA. But we want to push NASA and other space agencies Europe, Japan, Russia to do exploration in novel and innovative ways.”
The Planetary Society operates on a budget of only $4 million a year and has 22 paid employees.
For that reason, the so-called Cosmos 1 project, in the planning stages since March 2000, fits perfectly into the group’s mission of advancing space technology without spending colossal amounts of money. And unlike NASA, the organization doesn’t operate with Congress staring over its shoulder.
“NASA is in the business of succeeding, so there are limitations on how much risk we can take,” said Humphrey Price, who heads solar sail technology at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. “Anytime there is a government failure, it affects the funding of the program. But the Planetary Society can take risks that NASA can’t take. They can use technologies that haven’t been proven. If it succeeds, you’ve accomplished something that no one else has ever done before, and that might significantly advance the art of space travel.”
The society, which piggy-backed a microphone to record wind sounds on NASA’s Mars Polar Lander mission, suffered a major blow when the lander crashed on the Martian surface on Dec. 3, 1999.
The society now hopes to rebound with a successful launch of Cosmos 1.
“The Planetary Society wants to be a direct participant in space missions because that way they have some control in furthering certain missions that they would like to see (accomplished),” said Price. “The Russians can do a lot more with the same amount of money than NASA can do, because labor is so cheap over there. But historically, the Russian unmanned interplanetary missions have not been nearly as reliable as the U.S. missions. That goes back to the risk.”
The $4 million to pay for construction, launching and operational costscame from Ithaca, N.Y.-based Cosmos Studios, run by Sagan’s widow Ann Druyan. Russia contributed the launch vehicle in exchange for participation in the research generated by the solar wings.
The 100,000 members of the Planetary Society pay $25 per year in dues. (Overseas members pay $40.) Most of its members are amateur astronomers. The organization has its hand in a bevy of other current and future space projects.
They include:
– Arranging for a group of about 20 international students to take turns operating the Mars Exploration Rover ’03 from stations in Pasadena and elsewhere when NASA’s space vehicle makes its scheduled landing in early 2004.
– Organizing “Planetfests,” which bring together thousands of the world’s greatest scientists with amateur astronomers to celebrate historic events in space exploration.
– Awarding grants to well-trained amateur astronomers to locate and track asteroids and comets through their telescopes.
– Establishing the Red Rover, Red Rover project, which allows Internet-savvy students to simulate planetary exploration by driving a miniature Rover on terrain located at the Planetary Society and at hundreds of other sites.
– Funding six different searches by professional scientists using radios and telescopes in hopes of detecting “artificial signals” from space a sign that life exists elsewhere.
“Our role is to bring public participation directly into space exploration,” said Bruce Murray, the organization’s co-founder and president. “We all feel that space exploration is the public’s business. It is a broad, historical enterprise.”
