The technology developed for the composite booms for the ACS3 mission is scalable for future missions for solar sails up to 500 square meters, and researchers are working to develop solar sails as large as 2,000 square meters.
The objectives of the mission include successful sail packing and deployment of the composite boom in low orbit to evaluate the efficacy of the shape and design of the sail and collecting data on the sail’s performance to provide information for development of the larger future systems.
Scientists hope to gather data from the ACS3 mission to be applied to design of future systems that could be used for communications for manned exploration missions, for space weather warning satellites, and for asteroid reconnaissance missions.
The ACS3 mission is scheduled to launch no earlier than mid-2022.
