Cosmos 1 was a project by The Planetary Society to test a solar sail in space. As part of the project, an unmanned solar sail spacecraft was launched into space at 15:46:09 EDT (19:46:09 UTC) on June 21, 2005, from the submarine Borisoglebsk in the Barents Sea. However, a rocket failure prevented it from reaching its intended orbit. Once in orbit, the spacecraft was supposed to deploy a large sail, upon which photons from the Sun would push, thereby increasing the spacecraft's velocity (the contributions from the solar wind are similar, but of much smaller magnitude). Cosmos 1 solar sail. ... This article is in need of attention. ... Concept image of a solar sail spacecraft in the process of unfurling sails. ... Eastern Daylight Time or EDT is equal to Eastern Standard Time + 1, or UTC - 4. ... Coordinated Universal Time or UTC, also sometimes referred to as Zulu time or Z, is an atomic realization of Universal Time (UT) or Greenwich Mean Time, the astronomical basis for civil time. ... June 21 is the 172nd day of the year (173rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 193 days remaining. ... 2005 (MMV) is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Borisoglebsk is a Russian advanced Delta III SSBN nuclear submarine. ... Southeastern portion of Barents Sea, the Kola Peninsula and the White Sea. ... In physics, the photon (from Greek φως phos, meaning light) is a quantum of the electromagnetic field, for instance light. ... The Sun (or Sol) is the star at the center of our Solar system. ... The plasma in the Solar Wind meeting the heliopause Ion storm redirects here. ...

Had the mission been successful, it would have been the first-ever orbital use of a solar sail to speed up a spacecraft, as well as the first space mission by a space advocacy group. The project budget was USD $4 million. Space advocacy is a political position that favors the exploration, utilization, and colonization of outer space. ... USD redirects here. ...

Current status

The Cosmos 1 sail was launched at 15:46:09 EDT (19:46:09 UTC) on June 21, 2005. Eastern Daylight Time or EDT is equal to Eastern Standard Time + 1, or UTC - 4. ... Coordinated Universal Time or UTC, also sometimes referred to as Zulu time or Z, is an atomic realization of Universal Time (UT) or Greenwich Mean Time, the astronomical basis for civil time. ... June 21 is the 172nd day of the year (173rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 193 days remaining. ... 2005 (MMV) is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Initially, the first few ground stations did not report a signal from the spacecraft, raising fears that the spacecraft was lost on launch. However, at 21:40 PDT (4:40 UTC June 22), the Planetary Society announced, "We have found what we believe are spacecraft signals in the data recorded at [several] tracking stations...If confirmed, these data will indicate that Cosmos 1 made it to orbit, albeit possibly an incorrect orbit. (Press release) June 22 is the 173rd day of the year (174th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 192 days remaining. ...

Meanwhile, however, Russian news agencies were reporting that the spacecraft had not made it to orbit:

• At 14:00 PDT on June 21 (21:00 UTC), the Russian news agency Interfax reported that the spacecraft failed to reach orbit at the expected time.
• At 15:13 PDT on June 21 (22:13 UTC), the Russian news agency ITAR-TASS reported "the engine of the first stage of a Volna booster spontaneously stopped working at the 83rd second of the flight" (Report), (in Russian)

At 10:30 PDT on June 22 (17:30 UTC), the Planetary Society issued a statement that "the Russian space agency (RKA) has made a tentative conclusion that the Volna rocket carrying Cosmos 1 failed during the firing of the first stage. This would mean that Cosmos 1 is lost," but data "might indicate that Cosmos 1 made it into orbit, but probably a lower one than intended. The project team now considers this to be a very small probability." Time Zone is also a historical computer game. ... June 21 is the 172nd day of the year (173rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 193 days remaining. ... June 21 is the 172nd day of the year (173rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 193 days remaining. ... June 22 is the 173rd day of the year (174th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 192 days remaining. ...

On September 30, 2005 an update was released that stated that Cosmos 1 did not reached into orbit, and that this was caused by a problem with the Volna rocket. This problem was an old one, that was fixed in many of these rockets, but the one used for Cosmos 1 wasn't among the fixed ones. Currently, the lessons learned is undergoing evaluation by the Society for the next few months. September 30 is the 273rd day of the year (274th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 92 days remaining. ... 2005 (MMV) is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Planned mission profile

To test the solar sail concept, the Cosmos 1 project launched an orbital spacecraft with a full complement of eight sail blades on June 21, 2005 — the summer solstice. The spacecraft had a mass of 100 kg (220 lb) and consisted of eight triangular sail blades which would be deployed from a central hub after launch by the inflating of structural tubes. The sail blades were each 15 m long, had a total surface area of 600 square meters, and were made of aluminized reinforced Mylar. An orbital spaceflight (or orbital flight) in the general sense is a spaceflight where the trajectory of a spacecraft reaches the height of, and through having an appropriate velocity enters into, orbit around an astronomical body. ... June 21 is the 172nd day of the year (173rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 193 days remaining. ... 2005 (MMV) is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Illumination of Earth by the sun on the northern hemisphere summer solstice The summer solstice is an astronomical term regarding the position of the sun in relation to the celestial equator. ... The metre (Commonwealth English) or meter (American English) (symbol: m) is the SI base unit of length. ... Mylar is a trade name of DuPont Teijin Films of Hopewell, VA, United States, for biaxially-oriented polyethylene terephthalate (BOPET) polyester film used for its high tensile strength, chemical and dimensional stability, transparency, and electrical insulation. ...

The spacecraft was launched on a Volna rocket (a converted SS-N-18 ICBM) from a Russian Delta III submarine, the Borisoglebsk, submerged in the Barents Sea. The spacecraft's initial circular orbit would have been at an altitude of about 800 km, where it would have unfurled the sails. The sails would then have gradually raised the spacecraft to a higher earth orbit. "Cosmos 1 might boost its orbit 31 to 62 miles [50 to 100 km] over the expected 30-day life of the mission," said Louis Friedman of the Planetary Society. [1] The Volna rocket is a converted R-29R (SS-N-18) Soviet ICBM used for low cost satellite launches. ... R-29 is a series of Russian intercontinental ballistic missiles. ... A Minuteman III missile soars after a test launch. ... A Delta I class submarine. ... The Borisoglebsk is a Russian advanced Delta III SSBN nuclear submarine. ... Southeastern portion of Barents Sea, the Kola Peninsula and the White Sea. ...

The mission was expected to end within a month of launch as the Mylar of the blades would degrade in sunlight. Mylar is a trade name of DuPont Teijin Films of Hopewell, VA, United States, for biaxially-oriented polyethylene terephthalate (BOPET) polyester film used for its high tensile strength, chemical and dimensional stability, transparency, and electrical insulation. ...

Possible beam propulsion

The solar sail craft could also have been used to measure the effect of artificial microwaves aimed at it from a radar installation. A 70 m dish at the Goldstone facility of NASA's Deep Space Network would have been used to irradiate the sail with a 450 kW beam. This experiment in beam-powered propulsion would only have been attempted after the prime mission objective of controlled solar sail flight was achieved. This page is about the radiation; for the appliance, see microwave oven. ... This long range radar antenna (approximately 40m (130ft) in diameter) rotates on a track to observe activities near the horizon. ... The Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex (GDSCC) —commonly called the Goldstone Observatory— is located in Californias Mojave Desert (USA). ... Deep Space Network (DSN) is an international network of radio antennas that supports interplanetary spacecraft missions, and radio and radar astronomy observations for the exploration of the solar system and the universe. ... This page lists examples of the power in watts produced by various different sources of energy. ... Beam-powered propulsion is a class of spacecraft propulsion mechanisms that use energy beamed to the spacecraft from a remote power plant. ...

Tracking

The craft would have been visible to the naked eye from most of the Earth's surface: the planned orbit had an inclination of 80°, so it would have been visible from latitudes of up to approximately 80° north and south. A naked eye is a figure of speech, referring to human eyes unaided by enhancing equipment such as a telescope or binoculars. ... Inclination is one of the six orbital parameters describing the shape and orientation of a celestial orbit and is the angular distance of the orbital plane from the plane of the reference (usually planets equator or the ecliptic), stated in degrees. ... Latitude, sometimes denoted by the Greek letter φ, gives the location of a place on Earth north or south of the Equator. ...

A network of tracking stations around the world tried to maintain contact with the solar sail during the mission. Tracking stations included the Tarusa station, 75 miles (120 km) south of Moscow, and the Space Sciences Laboratory at the University of California-Berkeley. Mission control was based primarily at the Russian company NPO Lavochkin in Moscow — a centre that the Planetary Society calls Mission Operations Moscow (MOM). NPO Lavochkin is a Russian satellite manufacturer. ... Moscow (Russian: Москва́, Moskva, IPA: â–¶(?)) is the capital of Russia, located on the river Moskva. ...

Physics

The craft would have been gradually accelerating during each orbit as a result of the radiation pressure of photons colliding with the sails. As photons reflect off the surface of the sails, they transfer momentum to the object. Because there is no air resistance to oppose the velocity of the craft, acceleration is proportional to the number of photons colliding with it per unit time and amounts to a tiny 0.0005 m/s² acceleration in the vicinity of the Earth (BBC). However, even this tiny acceleration is larger than that of some other propulsion techniques; for example, the ion engine-powered SMART-1 spacecraft has a maximum acceleration of 0.0002 m/s². (SMART-1 achieved lunar orbit in November 2004). Radiation pressure is the pressure exerted upon any surface exposed to electromagnetic radiation. ... In physics, the photon (from Greek φοτος, meaning light) is a quantum of excitation of the quantised electromagnetic field and is one of the elementary particles studied by quantum electrodynamics (QED) which is the oldest part of the Standard Model of particle physics. ... In physics, momentum is the product of the mass and velocity of an object. ... Acceleration is the time rate of change of velocity, and at any point on a v-t graph, it is given by the gradient of the tangent to that point In physics, acceleration (symbol: a) is defined as the rate of change (or time derivative) of velocity. ... An ion engine test An ion thruster, one of several types of spacecraft propulsion, uses beams of ions for propulsion. ... SMART-1. ... 2004 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December See also: November 2004 in sports November 2004 in science Deaths in November • 30 Pierre Berton • 29 John Drew Barrymore • 26 Bill Alley • 24 Arthur Hailey • 23 Rafael Eitan • 18 Bobby Frank Cherry • 16 John Morgan • 13...

Other aspects

Besides the main spacecraft, launched in June 2005, the Cosmos 1 project has funded two other craft: 2005 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December- → Deaths in June June 27: Shelby Foote June 27: John T. Walton June 26: Richard Whiteley June 25: John Fiedler June 25: Chet Helms June 24: Paul Winchell June 21: Jaime Cardinal Sin June 20: Jack Kilby...

• A suborbital test was attempted in 2001 with only two sail blades. The spacecraft failed to separate from the rocket.
• A second orbital spacecraft is under construction, but the launch date (if any) has not been set.

One of Cosmos 1's solar sail blades was displayed at the Rockefeller Center office complex in New York City in 2003. A sub-orbital spaceflight (or sub-orbital flight) is a spaceflight that does not involve putting a vehicle into orbit. ... Lower Plaza at Rockefeller Center. ... The city is at the center of international finance, politics, entertainment, and culture, and is one of the worlds major global cities (along with London, Tokyo and Paris) with a virtually unrivaled collection of museums, galleries, performance venues, media outlets, international corporations, and stock exchanges. ...

Latest news

• Planetary Society's solar sail updates and press releases - current information about the Cosmos 1 project.
• Planetary Society's Cosmos 1 weblog, updated daily until launch, and then as events warrant. May no longer be active.

External links

• Cosmos 1 homepage at the Planetary Society
• Cosmos 1 page (flash only) from Cosmos Studios
• Near-Term Beamed Sail Propulsion Missions: Cosmos 1 and Sun-Diver (PDF file)
• Space technology: Setting sail for history (Nature, February 16, 2005)
• Space yacht rides to stars on rays of sunlight (The Guardian, February 27, 2005)
• Cosmos 1 to test solar sail (Wired News, June 16, 2005)
• Cosmos 1 videos (Windows Media, RealPlayer, QuickTime formats)