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HUNTSVILLE, Alabama – NASA scientists want to know what an asteroid looks like. They built a space probe that will launch and return images. But to catch up with a rock over 60,000 miles at the hour, Huntsville scientists built a solar sail
"It started as an idea, I've been interested in solar sails since I was a kid , reading them in sci-fi stories, "said Johnson, one of NASA's lead investigators on Earth's asteroids
This big idea in a small box is beginning to take shape.
"It's about the size of a box box," says Johnson.
The Johnson and his team of scientists have spent years studying asteroids. they designed the Near Earth Asteroid Scout to photograph fast moving rock.
"What does it look like? Is it a big rock? Are several small rocks held together by gravity? Are there rocks? What is it? These issues need to be resolved as we try to understand what is in the neighborhood, "said Johnson.
But the asteroid is millions of miles from the earth. And as there is no throttle pedal, Johnson's team designed a solar sail.
"It's the thickness of a human hair." Johnson said: [19659002] Lightweight and tear-resistant, the Johnson team tested the ease with which they could set sail in Huntsville.I do not look like.But, you have the sun, said Johnson. "And sunlight is made up of small particles called photons, and they have a momentum, just as the air does, and with a large reflector, like the light reflected by it, and it pushes on it." [19659002] Once the scout launched in 2020, Johnson says it will take about two and a half years to catch up with the asteroid, and he is using solar sail, which should allow him to reach about three to four miles per second
"We are delighted to be able to fold it up, put it in a spacecraft and prepare it to fly," Johnson said. Although this is not the first solar sail, Johnson says the mission will be a monumental test for the future of unmanned search missions.
Johnson says the scout is one of 13 space projects that will join the Orion launch. The latest NASA report indicates that the launch could take place in June 2020.
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