At the end of August, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced the completion of the process of deploying a solar sail in space as part of the Advanced Composite Solar Sail System (ACS3) mission. Now the department has published the first photograph of the sail, taken by a camera on board the spacecraft that delivered it to Earth orbit. It is expected that in the future solar sails will be used to move satellites in outer space.
Image source: NASA
The published photo may seem a little confusing. This is due to the fact that the spacecraft rotates slowly while moving in orbit. After collecting a sufficient amount of telemetry data on the operation of the sail and the composite guides holding it, NASA specialists stabilize the position of the device. It will probably be possible to take more legible pictures after this.
The spacecraft has four wide-angle cameras, one of which took the photo published by NASA. At the bottom of the image you can see “reflective square sails supported by composite beams,” while at the top is the back of one of the solar panels. The sail elements appear slightly distorted due to the camera’s wide-angle field of view.