Space Technology and Innovation

Teams working on CubeSail, a nano-scale space experiment, showcasing collaboration in advanced aerospace projects with a high-tech atmosphere.

CubeSail is a nano-scale flight experiment to demonstrate deployment and control of a single 250-meter (20 m2) solar sail blade as a low-cost risk reduction precursor of the exciting advanced interplanetary UltraSail concept having four 5-kilometer blades (with approximately 100,000 m2 of sail area). CubeSail was built by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and CU Aerospace, the same team that designed the I-Sail and UltraSail concepts funded by NASAs SBIR program. CubeSail represents an affordable stepping-stone towards the future development of the UltraSail solar sail concept that would enable very high-energy inner heliosphere and interstellar scientific missions. In addition, near-earth missions such as Heliostorm for early warning of solar storms will provide more warning margin as the solar sail performance is increased with UltraSail technology. Spacecraft design studies show that for sail areal densities below 5 gm/m2, as proposed with UltraSail, that spacecraft pa
CubeSail is a nano-scale flight experiment to demonstrate deployment and control of a single 250-meter (20 m2) solar sail blade as a low-cost risk reduction precursor of the exciting advanced interplanetary UltraSail concept having four 5-kilometer blades (with approximately 100,000 m2 of sail area). CubeSail was built by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and CU Aerospace, the same team that designed the I-Sail and UltraSail concepts funded by NASAs SBIR program. CubeSail represents an affordable stepping-stone towards the future development of the UltraSail solar sail concept that would enable very high-energy inner heliosphere and interstellar scientific missions. In addition, near-earth missions such as Heliostorm for early warning of solar storms will provide more warning margin as the solar sail performance is increased with UltraSail technology. Spacecraft design studies show that for sail areal densities below 5 gm/m2, as proposed with UltraSail, that spacecraft pa
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CubeSail is a nano-scale flight experiment to demonstrate deployment and control of a single 250-meter (20 m2) solar sail blade as a low-cost risk reduction precursor of the exciting advanced interplanetary UltraSail concept having four 5-kilometer blades (with approximately 100,000 m2 of sail area). CubeSail was built by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and CU Aerospace, the same team that designed the I-Sail and UltraSail concepts funded by NASAs SBIR program. CubeSail represents an affordable stepping-stone towards the future development of the UltraSail solar sail concept that would enable very high-energy inner heliosphere and interstellar scientific missions. In addition, near-earth missions such as Heliostorm for early warning of solar storms will provide more warning margin as the solar sail performance is increased with UltraSail technology. Spacecraft design studies show that for sail areal densities below 5 gm/m2, as proposed with UltraSail, that spacecraft pa
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CubeSail is a nano-scale flight experiment to demonstrate deployment and control of a single 250-meter (20 m2) solar sail blade as a low-cost risk reduction precursor of the exciting advanced interplanetary UltraSail concept having four 5-kilometer blades (with approximately 100,000 m2 of sail area). CubeSail was built by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and CU Aerospace, the same team that designed the I-Sail and UltraSail concepts funded by NASAs SBIR program. CubeSail represents an affordable stepping-stone towards the future development of the UltraSail solar sail concept that would enable very high-energy inner heliosphere and interstellar scientific missions. In addition, near-earth missions such as Heliostorm for early warning of solar storms will provide more warning margin as the solar sail performance is increased with UltraSail technology. Spacecraft design studies show that for sail areal densities below 5 gm/m2, as proposed with UltraSail, that spacecraft pa
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - A team of competitors readies its robotic vehicle taking part in the racing portion of NASA's Lunabotics Mining Competition at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. Although much of the competition was based on a vehicle's ability to dig soil, the festivities also included head-to-head runs for the robotic craft.