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Cosmos 1 is a project by The Planetary Society to test a solar sail in space. If successful, it will be the first such test.
The basic design is an unmanned spacecraft, consisting of eight triangular sail blades, each 15 m long, deployed from a central hub after launch by inflating structural tubes. After deployment the blades can be articulated to control the amount and direction of thrust.
A suborbital test was attempted in 2001 with only two sail blades. The spacecraft failed to separate from the rocket, so the test was not successful.
An orbital spacecraft with a full complement of eight sail blades is currently planned for launch in a window starting on March 1, 2005, on a Volna rocket from a converted SS-N-18 Russian submarine in the Barents Sea. The goal is to get it into a 800 x 1000 km elliptical orbit. This craft may also be used to measure the effect of artificial microwaves aimed at it from a radar installation. Once in orbit, the mission is expected to end within a month as the mylar of the blades degrades in sunlight.
The craft should be visible to the naked eye from most of the Earth's surface: the planned orbit has an inclination of 78°, so it should be visible up to latitudes of up to at least 78° north and south.
A second orbital spacecraft is under construction, but the decision to launch has yet to be made at the time of writing.
One of Cosmos 1's solar sail blades was displayed at the Rockefeller Center.
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