After coming back to life and appearing to deploy its solar panels, the Planetary Society‘s LightSail has gone quiet again, probably due to drained batteries. They are expected to recharge eventually and allow the spacecraft to resume communicating: LightSail Falls Silent; Battery Glitch Suspected – The Planetary Society –
If LightSail is suffering from a chronic undervoltage condition, help could arrive naturally, Spencer said. “The spacecraft orbit is in a geometry where eclipse occurs roughly 2100 seconds each orbit. This is near the maximum eclipse duration that LightSail-A will experience during the mission. Over the next couple of weeks, the orbit will precess to a full-sun condition, where the entire orbit is sunlit.”
When contact with LightSail is reestablished, the sail deployment sequence will likely be triggered as soon as battery levels are heathy enough to proceed.
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