Nasa has successfully deployed its Nano Satellite on 20 Jan 2011. The Satellite is called as Nanosail-D. The Nanosaild-D has deployed its 100-square-foot polymer sail in low-Earth orbit.

The Weight of this spacecraft is 8.5 pounds. This is NASA first Solar Sail mission. The ais is made of a polymer material called CP1. The membrane is about 3 microns thick, tens of times thinner than a human hair.

The Solar sails works on principal of thrust where the photons generate small levels of thrust when they collide with a solar sail. This thrust puts the pressure on sail, and it reacts to thrust and reacts like kite.

These sails can help in propelling lightweight spacecraft to long distances into the solar system  much faster than chemical rockets. This will open the solar system exploration possibility. If successful, NanoSail-D could profoundly affect the future of science and exploration missions.

The NanoSail-D will keep sailing through space in low-Earth orbit for the next 70 to 120 days, depending on atmospheric conditions. At the finish, it will burn up in Earth’s atmosphere.

NanoSail-D will continue to send out beacon signals, which can be found at 437.270 MHz, until the craft’s onboard batteries are expended, NASA officials said.

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