Digital Sprocket

As you know SpaceX’s recent Falcon1 launch failed to reach orbit. They tracked down the technical cause to extra thrust produced by their new Merlin 1C engine. After engine cutoff, there’s still some fuel remaining in the regenerative cooling channels. When that seeped into the combustion chamber and mixed with residual oxygen, it pushed the first stage into the separated second stage.

There is of course a more sinister cause behind this mishap…The Curse of the Solar Sail.

Some of you may be familiar with the “Mars Gremlin.” Only about 50% of all spacecraft destined for the red planet are successful. We are getting better at dropping landers and rovers on the planet, but it’s still extremely difficult and risky. You may not be aware of it, but there is a similar curse afflicting attempts to put a solar sail into orbit. And yes, The Falcon 1 was carrying NanoSail-D, a solar sail technology demonstrator from NASA.

In 2005, the Planetary Society attempted to launch Cosmos1, another solar sail demonstrator. Unfortunately, the launcher was a bargain basement, submarine launched Volna rocket. The Russian operators hoped to demonstrate that the Volna was ready to launch commercial payloads. Although the booster reached orbital altitude, the payload failed to separate, the spacecraft was lost.

In 2006, JAXA launched a solar sail vehicle piggybacked to ASTRO-F’s M-V booster. While it successfully reached orbit, it failed to deploy its solar sails.

This makes NanoSail-D our third attempt, and our third failure of a solar sail spacecraft. So from where I’m sitting, the only mistake SpaceX made was agreeing to launch a solar sail. Solar sails have great potential to support long duration robotic missions, but before that happens, we’ll have to defeat the Curse of the Solar Sail.